How I learned my mother language

I was born in Chittagong. My mother language being Bangla is the language I learned just like anybody else. However, at the age of four, I embarked on a path that would make me forget my mother language for some years.

My father went for higher studies in what's now Aberystwyth University, in Wales, in the UK. My heavenly mother, myself, and my younger sibling joined him a few months later in April 1974. What I can recall of my life started in Wales.

Within a week, I was in Plascrug School. In those days, the Welsh language was optional. I now wish they taught us Welsh properly. That would have given a portal to understand the Welsh nation better. I learned English and English only, albeit with a sweet Welsh accent.

I was never a voracious reader. However, I have been a voracious listener. Thanks to my parents, and the BBC, music and radio have been an integral part of my upbringing ever since I can recall my memory.

I lost connections with Bangla in Wales. My parents did not speak Bangla at home. However, through their music collection I listened to Bangla, Hindi, and Urdu artists. My senses were developing, laying the foundations of how music would reincarnate later in my life.

I was at the age of going to Grade 5 when we returned to Bangladesh. English medium was not a practical choice in those days. Before I could get admitted to a Bangla medium school, I had to learn the language. It was easier said than done.

My Dada came to the rescue. He patiently taught me the Bangla alphabet (and Arabic and Sanskrit). In spite of his efforts, my orientation of letters was in English. I had nightmares trying to get the pronunciations correct. Then came the short and the long vowels. When do you use the long e? When do you use the short e? How can you remember so many juktakkhor?

I started school in Bangladesh from Grade 6, in Bangla medium. It was not until another few years I could read Bangla properly. By then, I had reached my teens. I missed reading many Bangla classics people at that age would have read.

Once again, it was music and radio that ignited a passion for Bangla. I would listen to my father's LPs endlessly. I can still recall Tagore dramas like Shyama, Tasher Desh, Chitrangada from heart. Through the lyrics, I learned the language, and also metres of poetry.

The Nishuti sessions of Bangladesh Betar opened up a world of music from Bangladesh, South Asia and the world. The more I listened, the more I fell in love and wanted to know more.

Through music then and still now, I drown in whatever is wonderful and worth experiencing in the Bangla language. It makes me feel happy I have roots embedded in Bengal.

Asrar Chowdhury is a professor of economics. He follows Test cricket, listens to music, and spins vinyl when he has free time. Email: [email protected] or [email protected]