Harshness

When I started learning German I used to catch every foreigner on the street especially Europeans and used to talk with them in German (Poor people! They must have said in their mind: This Deutsch is something special, never heard of it ).

One day I met a French girl in a train and started talking in Deutsch with her. I helped her lot to make her understand the Map and other transport related things. So we developed a friendship. Then she said why did you choose German language to learn and why not any other language e.g. French? Don't you feel German is a harsh language?

I said, "for me all foreign languages are any way strange only, and secondly when it comes to harshness my mother-tongue (Marathi) itself is very harsh".

Many people say that when two Marathi people are talking it sounds like a quarrel. No doubt about it.

But I think for that the geographical/political situation is the main reason. My state Maharashtra is made up of the Lava – Basalt Stones. It is a mountainous region. Life here was too rough. More labour and less earning.

Politically speaking it was the only state which continuously fought against the foreign rulers. Therefore Maharashtra has tasted freedom more and continuous. Therefore the language is rather rough. OTOH if you see the languages in north especially Hindi they are sugar-coated and unnecessary soft. That is because the North people were constant under the rule of one or the other foreign ruler. They have got habit of saluting the rulers. So their language is elastic.
It reflects in Marriage System also. While north Marriages are of 6-7 days long and expensive, Marathi Marriages are hardly 7-8 hours long with low budget. That is because life was full of warfare. Many warriors used to go hundreds of Kms on the horse and used to eat or sleep on the horse only. Only great kings were afforded to have 5-6 days Marriage.

Also the Maharashtra is a land of reformers. All the reforms were instantly took place in Maharashtra viz. Woman education, Widow re-marriage, low budget marriage, cost of the marriage divided in Bride and groom equally, treating boy-child and girl-child equally (No Gender - biasness) etc. Therefore many outsiders feel that the life of Marathi people is harsh specially Marriage system.

(The funniest thing is that I have many friends who speak fluent Sanskrit and who have different mother-tongues. Their Sanskrit speaking tone and words are very much the reflection of their mother-tongue viz. Marathi pronunciation is hard and words are difficult, south Indians use more religious words, Katchchi toning is different, Gujrati will speak to the point and grammatically correct, Bengalis are proud about their speaking etc.)

But overall Maharashtra people are kind hearted, straight minded. You will hardly hear that Maharashtrian Shopkeeper cheated a customer in any manner or Marathi person is standing far away when anything wrong is taking place. The recent train bomb blasts in Mumbai is the best example of it. Within an hour or two Mumbai was on it’s wheel again. Even the trains started working within 2 hours. This is the spirit of Maharashtra.
So what makes a difference how the language is?

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