On the seventh day Pathan said, “Without intelligence you can drive, with intelligence better”

Amores Perros (Love’s Bitch) directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is a great movie. The story has three sub-stories interweaved through a car accident. It is a modern day master piece with some riveting visuals including a killing at day light, underground dog fights and a classic erotic scene involving Vanessa Bauche and Gael Garcia Bernal. Mani Ratnam was accused of plagiarism for adopting a similar structured screenplay for his movie Yuva (Ayudha Ezuthu). Guillermo Arriga wrote the screenplay for Amores Perros. Later the director-writer duo made Babel, an English speaking film which I haven’t seen yet.

However, Babel is not the name of a movie.

Babel was a tower which humans tried to build to reach the heaven. Gods frightened by this task made languages and the men who were building Babel started to speak different languages which ended the construction of this magnum opus.

Some times, I wonder that the whole purpose of languages is not to express an idea but to conceal an idea. One can have an entirely discreet emotion in his mind and at the same time look into the eyes of the listener and convey the contrary. Years ago I read some where that even the commonest wish can become the unforgettable dialogue in some one’s life. Just imagine walking into her and looking into her eyes and saying ‘all the best’ at a time when she needs it the most. She have had that wish a thousand times in her life for obvious reasons but it can so happen that she would cherish those few words as the most memorable lines in her life.

Then comes accent. How many types of English are there? Charlotte who is French told me that people from south and north of France speak with different accented French. An intruder into Monica Bellucci’s bedroom in the French movie Combien tu m’aimes? (How much do you love me?) teaches Bellucci the variations in sound that a woman from south and north of France would make while having an orgasm. I have met two Tamilians in my life who told me that I speak the Sri Lankan accented Tamil. Madurai Tamil is more poetic where a wife would call her husband ‘mama’ which means uncle. It is true that to understand North Keralite Malayalam is a tedious task to a South Keralite.

English also falls into the same category above. There are famous stand up comedians to whom mimicking the accent earn their bread.

It was an early morning in Dubai. Flying back from Munich, I hated Dubai for various reasons. It was humid and hot compared to the snow I had in Munich. Two weeks of luxurious hotel stay had spoiled me and I had too much wine in veins. I was in a taxi driven by a Pathan (Pak national). I behaved as if I am not interested to have a conversation. There was this pest just in front of our car driving a Nissan Tiida. He kept on changing the lanes for no reasons. The pathan tried to over take and failed. He made a sigh which was meant to invoke the curiosity in the listener and said, “Look, gentle man, without intelligence you can drive, with intelligence better”.

I use Emirates Exchange to send money home but there isn’t one near my home. So I asked the girl at the counter where the other exchanges was to which she said, “near piss market sir”. “What????”.

Well, some Philippinos would pronounce friend as ‘priend’ and the ‘sh’ sound is always ‘ss’. The word fish is a classic case of all the unfavorable situations coming together extra ordinarily to create an impact of mammoth proportions. Fish became piss.

At the end of the day, with or with out accents we live together. With or without grammar we convey what we want to. Isn’t it the point?

What the Italian master actor Giancarlo Giannini said in the movie ‘A walk in the cloud’ comes to rescue, “I speak with an accent but that doesn’t mean that I think with an accent”.