 Learning Tamil
May 1973 Coimbatore
 At the age of twenty-four, on a cold night, I landed at the Coimbatore railway station. I had Chandra Kanta Gariyali, IAStravelled all the way in the Jayanti-Janata Express to report as the Assistant Collector on training to the District Collector. My heart was full of apprehension. I did not know a soul in Coimbatore. I did not know the language, the culture, the customs, the place.
At the station I was received by a tall, dark, dignified and very capable looking man, officially known as the Huzur Shiristidar. He took charge of me with great ease and lodged me safely in the Circuit House, with instructions of not stirring out of the place without his knowledge.
My first problem was the language. I am normally good with languages and know several North Indian languages but I found it very difficult to pick up Tamil. The District Collector Mr. Shiva Kumar, personally arranged for Mr. Sarma, a retired Tamil teacher to give me tuition. The kindly old man of whom I grew very fond, tried very hard to teach me but all his efforts came to no avail. Three months passed like this.
 Gariyali at National Academy of
Administration One day I was taken to see a rural dairy project. The project was managed by an elderly European missionary lady. She had been serving the rural community in Coimbatore for over thirty years. Wearing a simple homespun cotton dress she came out to meet me and show me around. While going around she was shouting complicated instructions in Tamil to all and sundry. She was also stopping to ask the cows and buffaloes in chaste Tamil questions like, why had they not eaten their fodder? Or do they want to see their babies? Or why are you so angry? And so on.
Here I was an Indian come to serve the people of Tamilnadu. I did not even know how to give instructions to a peon and was given by the mercy of the government, an Urdu speaking peon. While in front of me was this dedicated western woman, completely at ease and integrated with the villagers.
I was ashamed of myself and my lack of inner effort to learn Tamil. My eyes filled with the tears of remorse of having wasted three months. There and then I decided if she could do it then I could do it too. She inspired me so completely that I decided to take my lessons with Mr. Sarma very seriously. My teacher was delighted and we started progressing very fast. But alas! My teacher who was over seventy, suddenly passed away without seeing me through my Tamil exam. However, he left his stamp on me and gave me what they call in Tamilnadu, a brahmin accent.
After him I could never find a teacher as good as him and was left to my own devices. At that time I was invited to see a Tamil film by a friend of mine. I had no appreciation of Tamil cinema and went very reluctantly. It was ‘Arengetram’ of director Balchander. I sat through the movie spell bound. I hadn’t seen a movie as good as this before. Tears kept rolling down my eyes and I understood every little thing. I also understood how powerful Tamil cinema could be and how a great director could communicate with a spectator who did not know the language.
Since then, I have relied on Tamil cinema to learn the language. I think cinema is a great and enjoyable way to learn languages. To date I have seen about 350 Tamil films. Out of these, I saw 100 voluntarily. The other 250 were imposed on me by the low cost film subsidy committee, of which I was the member secretary for three long years. (who would not like a job like that – daily cinema with tea and pakodas and sitting fee to boot).
Even today when I go to a district or a small town I make it a point to see a Tamil film after the days work is done. It also keeps you abreast with what the common man is thinking about the bureaucracy, politics and the rest.
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