The two siblings who are also twins, Sniha Kumari and Shruti Kumari, daughters of Chotelal Thakur and Prabha Devi and studying in St.Xavier Secondary School,New Nongstoiñ,West Khasi Hills District shocked the teachers for from amongst the twins, Sniha scored distinction marks in the Khasi subject by scoring 80 out of 100, while Shruti was only 6 marks shy from scoring distinction marks, and has also expressed that she was sad because she had infact aimed for distinction because she enjoys and love the Khasi language.
These students have recently cleared the SSLC Examination this year securing 1st Division and they have been residents of Nongstoiñ for only about 10 years and this is not the first time that non-speakers of the language have scored distinction marks in Khasi in this area.
It is truly a matter of embarrassment for the local natives in the land of the Hynñiewtrep who act like they do not know how to read and write in their own mother tongue, and yes there are those who say, ” we don’t know Khasi” when they are not even of any mixed parentage but act like foreigners and converse only in English even amongst fellow Khasi folks.
The success of students who do not speak the native language in achieving such good results in the Khasi subject can be a sign of awakening not only our children but also the parents who proudly claim and tell others, “my children don’t know Khasi! They are very weak in the Khasi subject and don’t get good marks in Khasi”.
In addition we can also say, “People will dig deep and do indepth research into what they love so that they know about it better, just as music lovers, animal lovers, nature lovers, lover of one’s own culture, lover of one’s own community, those who love God and others, and language is important because it is an identity of the community, we should start the love from our local dialect and so on.
And at long last, let us question ourselves on how non-speakers of our native language have fallen in love with our language when the native locals do not pay attention to it? Also, how can we see the Khasi language being included in the 8th Schedule when no one uses it? Because if the language has not gone deep into one’s heart then there is no point in demanding that it be included in books, and this happens because we do not love our roots and we do not understand our origin, but the reality is if others can they why can’t we?
