When I think of my mother-tongue, I think of my grandfather ...
my grandfather spoke Urdu,
the language of etiquettes,
in the land of mountains
with rosewater springs.
my grandfather spoke Hindi,
debonair and canorous,
at home he spoke Vajjika,
and sometimes Maithili,
both suave and melodic
to my grandmother's delight.
at times he flaunted his courtly Persian,
as his medieval pride
Five languages
Four languages and One dialect,
to be precise.
Yet English
belittled him
in White Men's Eyes
- Rohan Srivastava
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