This happened a few weeks ago but it’s worth a mention. And it’s not the review of Nehru’s timeless classic ‘The Discovery of India’. I happen to be an inactive member of GFXArtist. My purpose of joining the community was to network with other fellow designers and see what work they do. Their Chat Room is very well-known amongst the members and is a place where I frequently like to hang out.
On one such occasion I got introduced to a member, 17 years (?) old Jane from Norway. She’s an artist herself. I was taken by surprise one day when she asked me “how do they pronounce my name”. Citing a cultural ‘grand canyon’ that existed between us, I got what she was saying and I quickly typed ‘Boo-Shun’, just they way they do in dictionaries everywhere. And then it struck me!! After some research into the language, I discovered that there’s no letter such as ‘Bha’ in english!! Infact there’s no letter that starts with ‘Bh’ except for ‘Bhutan’ which is pronounced as ‘Boo-tan’ by the westerners :-)
In the end, this turned out to be just too much ‘gyaan’ for her and Jane has now decided to call me just ‘Bo’ :D. In retrospect, I felt that Hindi/Sanskrit and the other Indian languages are far rich in phonetics which are missing in the rest of the global languages. Perhaps I have to yet come across a language that is richer than the one my countrymen speak :-)