My name is Chris and I come from England

I’m attempting to learn Marathi, the language of Mahrasthra and I have to say that over the last few weeks I have actually enjoyed some small degree of success! The principle reason for this is that , outside of work, pretty much everybody I interact with are Marathis and I can thus get instant feedback on the quality of my attempts.
Hindi defeated me because of its many versions and subtleties, it’s a ‘poetic’ language – and full of ‘silent’ n’s and h’s and these guttural sounds that frankly all sound the same to me although slight changes change the meaning of a word or sentence completely, enough said I think.
So Marathi is the way to go and let me tell you it seems to gain me instant kudos (something I’m in desperate need of, let me freely admit). Of course |I’m only learning the spoken language, the script? Ha! Forget it, it aint gonna happen! My first words were Maza now Chris, me England la ratau (see the title of this piece). No sooner had I learned it than I was presented with an opportunity to use it. I was in a small seaside town South of Mumbai and was taking a photograph of a restaurant, as I pressed the shutter a large family group came out and the man immediately came towards me, I thought ‘shit’ and decided to try and disarm him with my command of his language so I said ‘Maza now Chris, me England la ratau’ and the effect was electric! He smiled and grasped my hand, called his family over and introduced me, asked me to pose for a photograph with them! Ashok, my driver told me that I have been lucky as he was a Senna guy, a right wing firebrand type and I had managed to reverse a potently difficult situation with a few words of his native tongue. Let me say that there are relatively few European Marathi speakers! Great, so I was off to a good start. I try and learn a couple of useful words a day on the way to work and Ashok is diligent in making me practice. Yesterday I was able to completely rid myself of hawkers on the beach by explaining that I lived in New Mumbai and was not a tourist, that I did not want to buy there wares, what was their name?, mine was Chris. I’d surely see them again soon! Again a few sentences worked wonders, they smile and say OK, fair enough! See you! Bye! This is really first class confidence building feedback, and the feeling that I can make myself understood is really thrilling and satisfying, unlike my attempts at Hindi which have always been met by stares of blank incomprehension! The major issue now is being able to recognize Marathis. Out in the countryside it’s easy – it’s everybody! In town the issue is more complex as I can’t tell from looking what language they will speak, whereas ‘the locals’ can. Anyway, I’m currently enjoying the experience, not that it will be of much use in the UK! Whatever – ‘ Chal y a tomi!