THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Who is responsible for children of tender age using abusive words? Former Additional Chief Secretary and noted columnist, D Babu Paul, has no doubt about it. The script-writers of films and tele-serials are responsible for bringing abusive words to the drawing rooms, he said.
Inaugurating the ‘Pravesanolsavam’ at Malayalam Pallikkoodam here on Thursday, he said actors cannot be blamed for using abusive language in films or serials.“It is the script-writers who include all those abusive words and force actors like Suresh Gopi to speak like they do in films and serials,’’ he pointed out. He further added that nobody would like to use those words if they are translated into Malayalam. “It is one’s culture that prevents one from uttering the abusive words which are known to him,” he said.
Recollecting his boyhood days in a primary school at Rayamangalam, Kunnathunadu, on the southern side of the Periyar in the early 1950s, Babu Paul said school education in Malayalam medium school had never been a handicap to him. He pointed out that during his schools days, there were just one or two schools in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi to provide primary education in English and they were meant for Anglo-Indian students. ‘’Loving Malayalam is not our charity. It is our luck to have such a language as our mother tongue,’’ he reminded the audience. Babu Paul said Malayalam had borrowed several words from Indian and foreign languages like Dutch, Portuguese and Arabic, besides English. He said there was no difficulty for officials to write on government files in Malayalam. He himself used to write on files completely in Malayalam by the end of his service period.
Since 1990, he made it a point to make speeches in Malayalam if the majority of the audience are Malayalees. ‘’If we have a mind to respect our language, nothing can stop it,’’ he said. Babu Paul said the word the ‘Guru’ had greater and wide meaning. It is not limited to those who initiate one to letters. ‘’Our own surroundings, birds and animals all teach us several things. Thus, Guru becomes a symbol and a representative,’’ he said.
Poet V Madhusoodhanan Nair presided over. Vattapparambil Peethambaran led the children in singing Onam songs. Students of Malayalam Pallikkoodam celebrated with cheering, wearing an alphabet cap, ‘Gurudakshina’, Ottanthullal, staging of play, ‘Uriyadi’ and tug-of-war. Jessy Narayanan, Biju Balakrishnan and Gopinarayanan led the programmes.