Papaji's Eternal Question

Today, my father asked me THE QUESTION again that he has been asking ever since I went to Toronto, Canada in 2003. I got to intern under a professor for a period of 3 months. When I told him about this, he went ecstatic, however, at the same time got worried whether I would be able to communicate with people over there. So he asked me, “yaar, tum English me baat kar lete ho?” (Can you converse in English?). Well, his doubt was relevant as I hardly secured good marks in English during school time. Though studied in Saint Paul’s Senior Secondary English Medium School from nursery to Eleventh, I could hardly speak English when I went to IIT. I justified my grasp in English when I secured 64/100 marks in 10th Board Examination. But wait, this isn’t true for only me. Take a random sample from any Boys Only English Medium School and I’m sure hardly 50% (very optimistic) of the students will speak good English. That’s the current status of Kota students.

So, while having evening snacks yesterday, he asked me the eternal question again, “tum English bol lete ho?”. I smiled subtly and replied “Papaji, Singapore ja raha hoon full scholarship pe, kya lagta hai aapko?” He said immediately, “doubt”. He is very sure that my sisters know English very well, but not me. Though I don’t rate myself excellent in speaking English yet it is still in much much better state. I explained to him that I worked in a Multi National for 5 years where almost every day I was talking to people located outside India. I told him that I’ve given so many MBA interviews both on telephone and in-person. However, all efforts went futile. Probably it is high time to show him my Toastmaster videos. But then, I think his response will be that this is only one way talk, where are others in this communication? Looks like, very soon I’ll have to give him a live performance.