Feature

21st February… is it just a day of formality?

Samantha Saberin

WE celebrate the 21st February, our mother language day every year with lots of preparation, planning etc etc. but, do the people today in the Twenty First Century Bangladesh, even understand the value of their own mother tongue? I guess they don't. Now the people living in this country are more interested in bringing up their children from the very beginning of their lives to be the future leaders of this great country, but leaving them ignorant about the meaning of the name 'Bangladesh' and ignominious to their own language.

The parents are teaching their children to keep 'Bangla' as their second language. They feel proud when they find out their children can't even speak properly in Bangla. But when the 21st of February arrives, a huge crowd turns out at the 'Shahid Minar' to show respect (symbolically) to the 'Bhasha Shahid' by putting flowers on a concrete structure. I really can't find any meaning of that! How come showing respect relates to putting flowers to a structure which remains abandoned for the ret 364 days? The sacrifice of those young lives, the love for the language, love for the country- are all these now just left for some particular days to show respect?

The 21st of February, we all sing the song 'Amar Bhaiyer Rokte Rangano Ekushe February; ami ki Bhulite Pari?' Well! We have forgotten already. Bangla is a language people died for; it is a land people fought for. But instead of being proud descendents, we hate, degrade and reject to give our children the right to know their own language, their own land.

We talk, think and develop our creativity in our Mother Language. So, without grasping our own mother tongue properly, we cannot be a successful learner of any foreign language. The English medium schools set their syllabus giving special attention only to English learning, where Bangla is always neglected. In some of these schools, children are not even allowed to speak in Bangla, as English is the more 'Useful' language for their future lives. Parents give the excuse of sending their children to English medium schools by saying- 'English is an international language.' But who made that? The British did, the Americans did- why cant we even try to do anything to give the language its perfect respect? The world had shown their regard to the martyrs who sacrificed for our language. Now we are celebrating the 21st of February as the 'International Mother Language Day', a huge recognition but we hardly know how to show respect to this great day and we barely understand the meaning of this day that lies within.

Now a days, the 'Djuice Generation' is trying to destroy the cultural base. This generation is actually following the fusion culture. On the other hand, they are faking themselves by proving to be some different sorts of Bangladeshis and using the 'Abar Jigay' type language. 'Half Bangla and half English' used language is defined as a 'Very Cool' style of talking. The radio stations, the recent craze, are giving us the perfect example of the destruction of our priceless language. The radio jockeys (sometimes even the guests) are selected in such a way that they could hardly speak in Bangla, even in English but adopted the style of speaking 'Banglish' well. I can see this generation going to no bright future. On the other hand, they are getting away from their real identity.

The most surprising fact is that even the parents appreciate their teenager boys and girls to be a 'Banglish' rather than a 'Banglabhashi'. This is not just sad but alarming as this generation is being trained to be a part of a culture that belongs nowhere. What are they going to teach the upcoming generations?

It is heartbreaking that we celebrate 21st of February as another “Bhasha Shahid Dibosh”. Once the day is over, all the “Ekusher Chetona” vanishes and then again another “Ekushe February” arrives.

83rd batch, Dept. of Economics
University of Dhaka