#395 - Taatung Tatung and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Diverse Languages

by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Adrija Ghosh

“Taatung Tatung and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Diverse Languages” by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Adrija Ghosh. Published by Penguin. A delightful book showcasing the charming stories of India’s rich and diverse languages.

Human beings as a species cannot live in isolation. We need to communicate with each other and be understood. It could be through conversations, songs, words, stories, inscriptions, art or even gestures. Each of the languages that we hear or come across have had a unique journey of their own through the ages. They are living entities and have a story to tell us. Early humans left messages through cave art. Then came inscriptions, seals and other artefacts, religious texts, literature and several other means which passed on important information to future generations about life in those times.

While some languages survived or adapted to changing times and continue to be spoken or have evolved into different forms, many were lost to the sands of time. Some of them have been forgotten as they have been overshadowed by dominant languages which promise better opportunities in education and jobs. Some languages are on the brink of extinction while some are being revitalised by the incessant efforts of language activists and linguists. While most languages would have been born as a means to communicate, there have been a couple of unusual secret ones which got created to either hide communities from being persecuted or the fact that the communities live in such remote places. And then there is the most mind boggling unsolved mystery of the IVC script of Indus Valley Civilisation which continues to elude linguists and researchers to date. Read the engrossing and extremely interesting book to delve into the world of Indian languages and figure how you can contribute to preserve your mother tongue or parent language!

My almost nine year old and I were captivated by this amazing book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Such an unusual and extremely relevant topic for the current times especially given that dominant languages are taking over regional languages and mother tongues. Slowly the number of people who know their parent languages are reducing. The book has been written in such a beautiful way that we get to hear the stories of languages in their voices. We loved the way information has been categorised into three sections spanning across the birth, evolution, death and revitalisation & rebirth of languages. This makes it an entire life cycle of a language which is a living entity as the author reminds us many a times. My son was thrilled to read about Sanskrit in one of the chapters and the author’s view that it it’s cool to learn an ancestor language as he is learning it in school :)

Overall this is a “MUST READ” simply because we need to preserve our languages and pass it on to our future generations. Doing the best we can by preserving and protecting our languages is what is expected of us as readers. As to the intriguing title of this book, one must read the book to know. To give it away would be akin to giving away the heart of the narrative. The book instils a sense of pride in our languages, sorrow for languages that have become extinct, hope that more languages will not die and get revitalised, awareness of the linguistic diversity of our country and the responsibility of doing our bit by continuing to use our parent languages and passing it on to our children. For those who want to delve further into this wonderful world of languages and their stories, the author has shared details about a plethora of resources in the bibliography section including books and journal articles, newspaper and magazine articles, websites and other sources that she used in her research to write the book :)

Recommended Age

The book is apt for anyone aged 12 and above for self reading. Having said this, it can be read aloud to slightly younger children aged 8 and above like we did.

Reasons to Read

The book must be read by everyone simply because there is an immense need to appreciate the linguistic diversity of India and do our bit to preserve, protect and where possible foster the growth of these languages. The stories of the languages need to go everywhere.

Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India, for review. Thank you to Greeshma and Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!