{"id":204497,"date":"2022-02-28T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=204497"},"modified":"2022-02-03T04:38:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T04:38:39","slug":"meeting-thousands-of-people-conversing-with-a-few-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/meeting-thousands-of-people-conversing-with-a-few-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Thousands of People–Conversing with a Few of Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wherever you may be in India you are flooded by the sight of people of various communities or sometimes with people of one region or another of a country. In some metro places or tourist places you are likely to see foreigners clustering together. This is in a big city of a country, but in addition, places such as railway stations or bus stands of a major city are crowded with people and sometimes with the pet dogs they may be travelling with.<\/p>\n

If you are travelling in an airplane that has a capacity of two hundred or more, you may again feel crowded in the plane even though the plane is running in a professional manner. The air hostesses do their best to cater to the needs of various passengers.<\/p>\n

Sometimes at election time we are caught up in a\u00a0professional group that is raising slogans\u00a0for a particular group and berating another group in order to garner votes for the party they represent.<\/p>\n

At these crowded places with thousands of people,\u00a0I often feel puzzled, amused, and as a result I feel that I am overwhelmed by the rush of people and crowded spaces. Another feeling that I often get is curiosity \u2014 who are these people, where are the going to, or where have they escaped from?<\/p>\n

A different sort of emotion sometimes grips me. With hundreds of thousands of people that I encounter at different places every day, is there even one person whom I know or who knows me? I have travelled a lot in my life due to academic pursuits or as a tourist in India and a few oversees countries in the last many years, I feel that there must be someone in this wide world\u00a0\u00a0whom I have met somewhere earlier and who reciprocates my feelings.<\/p>\n

I do recall some pleasant experiences talking to local people in some foreign countries. Knowing and speaking French in France has been a pleasant experience. When I ask some French person some questions \u2014 like the address of a Musee or Metro station or something similar in\u00a0French, the person looks at me with curiosity, feels happy that I speak in his language; he or she is happy to explain the location of that address. Sometimes he (she) walks with me a few metres and points out the direction of my destination.<\/p>\n

\u2018Merci beaucoup<\/em>\u2019 I say happily and he (she)\u00a0happily says\u00a0\u2014 \u2018Au Revoir\u2019<\/em>, I will come to India to meet you…\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

I can appreciate the joy of meeting a foreigner and speaking his\/her language. Many years ago I met a group of young tourists in southern part of India. When they saw me they asked me some question\u00a0in\u00a0Hindi language. I was astonished\u00a0\u2014 foreigners speaking my own language, if haltingly; it was an ineffable joy.<\/p>\n

A similar experience I enjoyed in my recent holiday in Goa on the western coast of India \u2014 with its several beautiful beaches. Goa is a warm comfortable place in these winter months and attracts large number of Russian tourists. I had learnt a semester of Russian language about half a century back and remembered a few words.<\/p>\n

So when I saw these Russian tourists, I asked one of them,\u00a0\u2018goveritie Pa Russkie<\/em> (do you speak Russian?)\u2019<\/p>\n

The tourist was amazed at my words spoken probably with errors. He smiled and replied a few words which I did not understand. I remembered another expression meaning goodbye in their language \u2018Dasvidania\u2019<\/em>. The person and his friend laughed heartily.<\/p>\n

I met a few more Russian tourists in Goa and learnt a few more of their conversational expressions, which I refrain from presenting here for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

Crowds of people are baffling, but if you know someone or if you can speak in the foreigners\u2019 tongue, the bafflement can turn to pleasure and joy.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With hundreds of thousands of people that I encounter at different places every day, is there even one person whom I know or who knows me? I have travelled a lot in my life due to academic pursuits or as a tourist… (read on)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}