Bits of Life 2

F-11 Words-350

Indeed I should.

He was going to my class M.A (Previous), of which I had no idea. So I hurried after him and entered the classroom with him, sat in the very first row.

In my nervous state I might have pushed the girl already sitting there, a little. Sweet as she was, she moved obligingly. Quiet Mobina became one of my friends later.

Why was I nervous? You might ask.

This was first time I ever joined a coeducational institution. It felt strange to sit along with boys. Till then, all the schools (every once in three years my father would be transferred) I attended were girls’ schools or convent schools. Of course, this newness disappeared within a week.

Our class had thirty five girls and fifteen boys. We were friendly with each other. Lecturers were efficient and classes went on without interruption.

We had five papers to write our exams in the first year. Besides ages of Chaucer to Shakespeare, we also had to study American literature and Indo Anglian literature.

And there was History of English Language, as to how it evolved and outside influences on it. There was also the subject of Linguistics covering the structure of the English language, its grammar, phonetics and such. It was fun to study the great vowel change and Grimm’s Law among other things.

The consonant shift wherein sounds transform from p,t,k to f, th, h. due to the influences of Germanic and Indo European languages was fascinating.

Examples
Pater – German and Pitha- Sanskrit to father in English
Tres-Latin to three in English
Caput- Latin- to head in English.

These concepts were not too tough to understand but our language teacher, Mr. Datta wasn’t much help in understanding them. We had to pay close attention to his pace, which was too rapid and his pronunciation, the pitch of which often dropped from high to low or from low to high. He also used to stomp on the wooden podium and that loud sound interfered with his voice and created confusion for us, his poor students.

Same was the case with