Rhymes Galore – Post 10

Tags

hindi, NaBloPoMo, punjabi, rhymes, telegu, tulika blog-a-thon

Thanks to Tulika’s Blog-a-thon the blog world is abuzz of rhymes of all languages… And I am loving it 😀

Now tulika says

Tulika is looking for rhythmic songs, playground rhymes, clapping chants and just-for-fun rhymes in your mother tongue.

And that brings me back to my question of life what is my mother tongue, ideally it should be Punjabi but we hardly spoke it while growing up… hindi is what comes to my mind when I think of mother tongue and that is the language in which I remember all my rhymes

So here we go… there were so many hindi rhymes that we use to sing as a child its going to be really difficult to jot down all but I will try and put down some favorites

Titli Rani Titli Rani itne sunder pankh kahan se layee ho

Kya tum koi shahzadi ho Parilok se aaye ho

Phool tumhe bhi ache lagte phool hamein bhi bhaate hain

Woh tumko kaise lagtein jo phool todne jaatein hain

Translation

Butterfly Queen Butterfly queen where did u get such lovely wings

Are you a princess? Have you come from the land of fairies

U like flowers and so do we

But what do you have to say about the people who pluck them

Another one on butterflies

Titlu udi bas main chadi

driver ne kaha aaja mere pass

titli kahe hat badmaash

Translation

butterfly started flying and went to a bus

Driver called and asked her to sit beside him

She told go away u naughty fellow

:rollseyes: this is for kids 😉

Another one which is very common but I used to love it and still do

Chanda mamma door ke dahi pakore boor ke

aap khaye thaali main mune ko de pyaali main

pyaali gayee toot munna gaya rooth

munne ko manayenge nayee pyaali laayenge

Translation

Uncle moon you are far away, eating curd wada

You eat in a big plate where give to the baby in small cup

The cup is broken and the baby sad and angry

Lets buy a new cup to make the baby happy

There is however one punjabi rhyme which I clearly remember and sing to ojas too

Ghum ghum chaati cha meri ghaati

makhan mera patla khaan walla mera nonu ghapla

Translation broadly it means that the we are making butter from milk and the baby will eat it all

And then I used to love this song and luckily so does ojas

Naani teri morni ko mor le gaye

baaki jo bacha tha kaale chor le gaye

khaake peekhe mote hoke chor baithe rail me

choron waala dabaa kat ke pahunchaa seedha jail me

khaake peekhe mote hoke chor baithe rail me

choron waala dabaa kat ke pahunchaa seedha jail me

un choron ki khoob khabar li mote thaanedaar ne

moron ko bhi khoob nachaaya jungle ki sarkaar ne

un choron ki khoob khabar li mote thaanedaar ne

moron ko bhi khoob nachaaya jungle ki sarkaar ne

achchi naani pyaari naani roosa roosi chhod de

jaldi se ek paisa de de tu kanjoosi chhod de

achchi naani pyaari naani rootha roothi chhod de

jaldi se ek paisa de de tu kanjoosi chhod de

Translation

Oh granny the peacocks took away your peahen

And whatever was left was taken away by the black thives

after eating a lot and becoming fat the theives sat in the train

but the carraige in which they were sitting went directly to jail

The fat policeman gave them a nice lesson

And the king of jungle made the peacocks also dance a lot

Lovely granny, nice granny. Now dont be angry

Give me a penny and stop being miser

And then the one Ojas has been in love with since he was born and he now sings it fully…

Uper pankha chalta hai

neeche baby sota hai

sote sote bhook lagi

ek narangi tod liya

maali ke bete ne dhekh liya

phool jhadi se maar diya

Translation

The fan is running up

The baby is sleeping down

he got hungry while sleeping

and went and plucked an orange

The gardener’s son saw him

and hit him with a flower stick

And here is one in Telegu which N’s granny i.e Ojas’s great grand mom sings to him and he really enjoys

Chandamaama raave, jaabilli raave

Kondekki raave, koti poolu theve

Bandekki raave, banti poolu theve

Theru meeda raave, thene pattu theve

Pallaki lo raave paalu perugu theve

Parugetti raave, panasa pandu theve

Naa maata vinave, nattinta pettave

Annee theve abbayiki iyyave!

And here is the translation(as explained by mil)

Come moon, come sweet moon

Come over the hill, bring a million flowers

Come on a chariot, bring a bunch of Marigolds

Come over the brook, bring a comb of honey

Come on a palanquin, bring milk and curd

Come on running, bring a Jackfruit

Now listen to me and keep them here right

Bring them all for baby’s joy

Phew this translation business is tough… Also I am wondering if Ojas does this 30 yrs from now, what will be the rhymes… Chai Chai Coffee Coffee 😉

So whats ur native language?

Tags

books, english, hindi, kannada, kids, language, marriage, multicultural, parenting, reading, tamil, telegu, tullika publishers

How are u?

Kaise hain aap?

Tussi kidda?

Etla undao?

Apdi Erke?

Neenu Hehiddhiya?

Ideally I would want to be able to speak all of the above comfortably and so would I want Ojas to but unfortunately its not to be… and BTW if u are still wondering whats that its How are u in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Telegu, Tamil and Kannada and I so hope I have got it right

Ever since Ojas has been born I have been thinking how to make him pick up his native languages… And then utbt did this series of posts on languages which made so much sense to me and at the same time came Tullika’s blogathon about the same. So I am going to take this up for clarity of my mind and  sharing some thoughts.

How different are the written and spoken forms of your first language?

Well my confusion starts at the very fact that what is my first language.. so to speak I am a punjabi a proud one at that 🙂 but my pride just melts away when someone asks me if I know punjabi… I was born and brought up in Delhi the number of visits to Punjab being easily countable on fingers. So does this make Hindi  – the most common language in Delhi my first language? or Punjabi still remains my first language? or is the language that the child picks up first really called the first language? What do you guys think about this?

Anyways coming back to the question that Tullika raised. I really can’t answer it for Punjabi as I can just about understand it and barely manage to speak, reading and writing is a far of thing.. if any of u can throw light on it. I will be delighted. Roop? Mampi?

Coming to Hindi, spoken Hindi and written hindi are almost the same. Just as spoken and written English is almost the same. There are differences but minor and subtle. So if u know the script of the language and can speak decently well I guess u will manage to write it as well.

As far as it comes to Hindi I can fairly say I am confident in the language (but I still prefer if u don’t me my marks in Hindi in school I choose not to disclose that 😉 )… I can speak, read and write… though its been ages I have written anything in Hindi. I am going to pick up a notebook and write something anything post I finish this post

If you want children to become familiar with their first language, which form would you look for in children’s books – formal or informal? Why?

Aah here comes the biggest confusion of life… I am confused on what my first language is – Punjabi or Hindi? And the hubby his dad was from Tamil whereas the mom from Telegu (he know to speak and understand both but can’t read or write anyone of that) so as a result we are going to pass on four native languages to Ojas… Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu and by the sheer fact that he is actually born in Karnataka I would say that Kannada becomes his native too but even if we leave that aside… its a huge challenge for us to decide what to teach him and what not.

I ideally want him to pick all 5 languages but when I was discussing this with my sil the other day she mentioned that why burden the child so much? Are all these languages actually needed? And she does have a point. Picking up a language is not easy (atleast for me, I know there are some people who have such a good knack of it) but even if its not very difficult, I am sure learning five languages is surely confusing for a small child.

On the other I strongly believe that if we don’t pass our languages to our children they will slowly die to think of which is truly heartbreaking. The number of kids who understand their native languages is already on the decline. (Did I tell you that I curse my mom so much for the fact that she didn’t teach us Punjabi) And when I think of I realize the precisely what we face. Multicultural marriages.

Quite a lot of the couples around us have multicultural marriages and most of the kids from those speak primarily English but yes I have seen the kids of the same cultural marriages pick up their native language so beautifully.

At home, because everyone understands English and Hindi the conversation is by default in Hinglish. And that is what Ojas is picking up, that is what he speaks.

Coming back to the question that Tullika raised. If I want him to understand and learn the native language would I prefer a formal or an informal method?

Here my personal choice would be informal. I understand that what we can learn this way may not be grammatically correct but frankly does it really matter? If they do get interested in language slowly they can always pick up the grammar. Plus I strongly believe that kids learn the best in a informal way. So I would love Ojas to pick up the rest of the languages in just the way he is picking up English and Hindi. By talking and us reading books to him.

Currently we have both Hindi and English books for him and some bilingual ones by Tullika. I even had a Kannada bilingual which my maid used to read to him.

However there is a problem here.. that can’t be done for all the languages as its only Hindi and English we can read as a couple. So may be for the rest of them we’ll do a formal way for him and we too learn along 😉

Do share your thoughts on this? What does ur child speak more so if u have a multicultural marriage?