A comment on my previous post brings me to the huge deficiency in my education , and in that of those like me who were educated in English in a place away from their birthplace. I was born in Madras, educated in UP and Delhi. Being a south Indian, I found Hindi taught in UP schools tough and just managed to do well enough in exams to get by decently. I never got to learn my mother tongue inspite of my mother's nagging every summer vacation. Now I can speak Tamil, but cannot read or write adequately. I can speak Hindi, read and write with facility, but not well enough for literary efforts. So if I were a writer, I would be forced to write in English because that is the only language in which I am well- read. I have read books in English from the age of 5 or so, from Noddy, to other Enid Blytons, to classics, to poetry, Shakespeare ...etc. But that education now is isolating me from children whom I would like to communicate to. After my retirement, I would like to spend a couple of hours every day teaching in the zilla parishad schools, but I do not speak Telugu well enough to teach.
Moral of the story, no one has had a good education, and if anyone is well educated, it is thanks to his/her own efforts, rather than to the school system.
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