UP village boy suddenly acquires American accent

by The Beginner | July 13, 2007 at 10:22 pm

1884 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

LUCKNOW: A 14-year-old
Dalit boy, born and brought up in a remote village of western Uttar Pradesh, has
suddenly turned

angrez

. Rajesh, without
any evident help, has started speaking fluently in English and does so with a
proper American drawl. And that’s not all: He seems to have forgotten how
to speak Hindi.

Wonders do not cease with this: His knowledge of
physics and mathematics has left engineering students baffled. Having already
penned three books, Rajesh is now looking forward to some research
work.

All of this may sound like a Bollywood script on one of its
favourite themes, reincarnation. However, Rajesh, a resident of a nondescript
village 40 km from Saharanpur, refuses to call it so.

In his words:
"There is no concept of reincarnation. It is just that memory can’t be
destroyed till there are sound waves in the world."

And this is the
area of science that interests Rajesh the most. "He has already written three
documents, one on memory, the other on sociology and the third on
liberalisation," said an excited Shishu Pal Singh Verma, principal of Willian
Jefferson Clinton Science and Technology Centre, where Rajesh was enrolled last
year.

"I did not take him seriously for a few months but on Republic
Day, while the students were reciting poetry before the entire college, Rajesh
took the mike and addressed the gathering in fluent English. This left us almost
shell-shocked," says Shishu Pal.

Rajesh’s mother Omkali and
16-year-old brother Kaluwa are daily wage labourers who earn just enough to
manage two square meals a day. His father Sompal is mentally-challenged. Asked
how and when these changes came into Rajesh, Omkali said that it happened almost
a year ago when Rajesh was helping Kaluwa erect a wall.

"Every time
the brothers brought the wall up to two feet, their father would smash it.
Irritated, Rajesh threw a brick at him who was hit in the head and began to
bleed.”

This left Rajesh dumbfounded. "For the next three
months, he did not utter a single word. When he did, it was not in Hindi," said
Jamal, a resident of Saharanpur.

The story is reported in The Times of India, but there is an important followup in Zee News.

"But doubts surfaced when it was discovered that the English he spoke
had grammatical errors. Also, the boy could not actually figure out the
questions asked in English, and rather gave vague answers.

"However, all the claims went down the drain, when after 5
hours of grilling, Rajesh confessed it on-air at the Zee News studio
that the theories doing the rounds were not really correct. It was a
Hollywood movie, Total Recall, and the constant exposure to Western
culture that gave him a cursory knowledge of English. Further, it was
discovered that Rajesh could very well understand Hindi, for he could
answer the questions which were put up before him in the language. And
the big surprise came when he actually spoke before the camera, though
with a broken accent “Main apni zindagi badalna chahta hoon” (I want to
change my life).

"With Zee News’ constant perusal for truth, the cat was out of
the bag when Rajesh finally revealed the secret behind the ‘miracle’.
In 2005 on the eve of 26th January, Rajesh was insulted by his teacher
when he failed to read out a speech in English. The incident left a
scar on his mind, and a humiliated Rajesh vowed revenge. He took up
this challenge, and set out on a spree of watching English movies and
listening to English songs."

Lots more at Zee News.

This is a fantastic story, but it must be read from THE BOTTOM UP.

Start with the comments; read the links; and finally, read The Beginner's version.

What makes this so fantastic is the insight into the life of a 14-year old boy who, stung by his teacher's criticism, dug deep into his resources to create a more perfect version of himself.

This version was so captivating that the largest media in India took notice.

I realize that by flagging this as Good Stuff, it may give the wrong impression to some. And The Beginner, I would like to encourage you to rewrite this item, so that people will not have to read it backwards. You have done a fine thing to bring this story to worldwide attention. It has all the makings of a modern allegory; I can see it as a major motion picture.

Human yearning is the most powerful force in the universe. In this case, it produced fraud that reveals something important about our need for dignity and love.

NowPublic

World

UP village boy suddenly acquires American accent

Photos