Dreaming in Hindi (48 page)
Authors: Katherine Russell Rich
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My first week studying in India, at loose ends one afternoon, I took a rickshaw downtown and settled in at a café. I was copying Hindi social phrases in Devanagari script, hoping to inscribe the words in my brain, when a jostling sound made me look up. "Excuse me," said one of the three waiters who'd been standing at attention. "You close this here"âand he pointed to one of the letters in "
I am much obliged for your kindness
"â"or otherwise it answers the other." All three grinned as I made the correction, then resumed their straight-backed pose. Midway through "
I am very much pleased to meet you,
" however, a shadow fell across the page.
"Miss, miss," the man said, tapping a letter with his finger. "This same like that one, also closed." On completion of "
After a time I have the honor of seeing you,
" I checked to see how it had gone. The men nodded. "
Please sit down comfortably,
" I started to write, reaching for my lassi, which in the heat had baked to sludge. I asked for water. Then I asked for love. Guffaws went up all around. Not
pyar,
"love," the waiter said, shaking his finger.
Pyala,
"cup," he said, and disappeared, returning with a Dixie cup, which he set in front of me. "Here's your love!" he cried, and I joined in the chortling. That was a good one, for sure.
So many people helped shape this book, I don't know how to begin to acknowledge them all, so I figure I'll start with the crack team of de facto Hindi teachers who prowled the streets of the Indian town where I livedâall the bank clerks, restaurant personnel, cybercafe owners, and rickshaw drivers who, unbidden, jumped in to fine-tune my Hindi every time I turned around and who, in the process, made me love the country even more than I already did.
There are a number of people, too, whose names I do know and whom I'd like to thank as well for their kindnesses and instruction:
Bindishwari Aggrawal, Susham Bedi, Tej Bhatia, Wendy Doniger, Neha Jain, Raj Kamal Jha, Amitava Kumar, Joel Lee, Suketu Mehta, Prassananshu, Rakesh Ranjan, Tulasi Srinivas, Salil Tripathi, and Michael Witzel, all of whom expanded my knowledge of India and saved me from making any number of foolish errors.
Priyanka Sharma, who exhibited noteworthy patience when it came to answering my everlasting slew of questions about India and Hindi. I'm grateful to her for not changing her e-mail and for the gracious reflection she gave to each inquiry.
The linguist Alton Becker, for helping me make sense of what, at times, was a fiercely puzzling map. Michel Paradis, for his cheerful and unwavering willingness to illuminate the brain for me. Nancy Isenberg, for hours of fascinating conversations in Princeton, New Jersey, about autism, mirror neurons, and culture shocks. Martha Young-Scholten, for her enthusiasm and the overview of linguistics she provided.
Ellen Bialystok, Derek Bickerton, Jeffrey R. Binder, Andrew Cohen, Vivian Cook, Marie Coppola, Ton Dijkstra, Chris Frith, David Green, Arturo Hernandez, Marco Iacoboni, Dora Johnson, Judith Kroll, Sydney Lamb, Brian MacWhinney, Gaurav Mathur, Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, Lorraine K. Obler, Lee Osterhout, Aneta Pavlenko, Charles Perfetti, Kenneth Pugh, John Rassias, Terry Regier, Jenny Saffran, John H. Schumann, Annie Senghas, Ragnar Steingrimsson, Deborah Tannen, Jyotsna Vaid, Michael Vitevitch, and Anna Wierzbicka were all enormously helpful in elucidating scientific theories that appear in this book.
Early on in the writing, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library gave me the extraordinary opportunity to spend a year surrounded by books and uncommon fellowship. Many thanks to the library's Rebecca Federman, Pamela Leo, and Jean Strouse; ace researcher and writers' friend David Smith; and Usha Bhaskar and Sunita Vaze.
The Corporation of Yaddo, where the book first came together. The MacDowell Colony, where I finished it.
Deb Baker, Martha Barnette, Jo Ann Beard, Betsy Carter, John Catalinotto, Jill Ciment, Greg Gibson, Sue Halpern, Amy Hempel, Margaret Jaworski, Patricia Lear, Rachel Manley, Sara Nelson, Diego Olivé, Martha Ann Overland, Leslie Savan, Judith Stone, Peter Trachtenberg, and Lindsy Van Gelder read all or parts of the book and offered valuable suggestions.
Delphine Blue; Dennis Nurkse; George Raptis, M.D.; and Syd Straw, for the joy of their insights and support.
All the members of the Invisible Institute, beginning with Chris Kenneally, Annie Murphy Paul, and Alissa Quart.
Arun Krishnan vetted the final draft and also made me laugh every time I downloaded his "Learn Hindi from Bollywood Movies" podcastsâthe place to go when you need to know how to say "In the next twenty-four hours, I will make twenty-four pieces out of you" in Hindi.
Gabriela Ilieva, for her friendship and her scared-straight approach to Hindi language study. She's a superb teacher, for she has the rare ability to make you, during the time you spend with her, smarter than you are.
My agent, Betsy Lerner, was a djinn. She sowed the seed, provided counsel that got me over numerous hurdles, knew when to step in and when to hang back.
And: Sasheem Silkiss-Hero, a pleasure to work with, at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The elegant Pat Strahan, who acquired the book. Eamon Dolan, who with wit and sharp intelligence guided it through. Anjali Singh, who came in at the end and proved to be a writer's dream: deeply respectful, able to see the best in the work, and indefatigable in her arguments when she's absolutely right. Which, as it turned out, was much of the time.
* Throughout the book, conversations that took place in Hindi are given in italicized English, to avoid taxing the reader's patience with repeated translations.
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* Called Varanasi in its most recent rechristening, but as no one in the town where I lived referred to it that way, I've used the older name, Benares, throughout. I've done the same with Mumbai/Bombay and Kolkata/Calcutta.
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* Later, the official number was boosted to twenty-two, and it still wasn't one.
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* Fraktur is still kept alive in the gift shops of Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants.