This is all about Malayalam. The language of our ancestors, the language of our family, the language that's always been almost within reach. This is Red Dino's tale about her ever evolving relationship with her mother tongue.

Transcription:

Enikku malayalam manssilavum, pakshe paryaam patilla. I can understand Malayalam but I can't speak it.

That's one phrase out of a limited few that me and my sister know how to say in our mother tongue. Otherwise, broken sentences and a few staple words help us survive our Kerala trips. But of course, with a high literacy rate, English often comes in handy in God's Own Country.

Having grown up in northern and western India and with parents, grandparents, and close relatives fluent in both Hindi and English, Malayalam wasn't a mandate in our household. Spoken by the adults and the elders for the most part, only understood by the offspring.

Nevertheless, the language was almost a part of our daily, especially with grandparents around. Local news, yes, but more so regional TV shows and movies would often play in the background. Unknowingly improving our comprehension skills.

And so over the years, Malayalam cinema became our gateway to the language. Although that relationship has had its ups and downs, often disrupted for years on end, we always find a way back to our roots. Mostly thanks to how magnetic we find its tonality.

You see as riveting and profound as Malayalam can be, it also holds the power to be equally funny and witty. We keep getting sucked into its magic. And so, 2024 has been a homecoming of sorts.

With Poacher, The Great Indian Kitchen, and now Aavesham, we are back to revelling in the language through its content. It's both a source of flashbacks and a step forward. Let's see where this journey takes us...

Our Website: https://likeridingafish.wixsite.com/my-site

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Music Credits:

https://freemusicarchive.org

"Woke up this Morning (TP 53)” by Till Paradiso

License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode)

Background sound from Pixabay