Page 145 - Half Girlfriend

hotel called Nest, provided I didn't ask for a receipt, *

Ten minutes into my first class at Patna Pride, I had a sinking
feeling.
This wouldn’t work. I shared the classroom with fifteen other

students, mostly around my age and all men. The teacher asked us to

call him 'Verma sir’.
‘Say “how”,’ Verma sir said, asking the class to repeat the word.

‘How.’ The response came in ten different accents. The word
sounded like ‘haw’ or ‘haau’ or ‘ho’.

‘Are.You.' Verma sir said, 'How are you?'
The class repeated the words with a Bihari twist.

‘Confidence,’ Verma sir said, ‘is the secret. It is the key difference
in coming across as high-class English or low class. You have to sound

right, too. This is a foreign language. Not Bhojpuri. So the sounds are
different.'

He turned to a student called Amit, ‘Why are you here, Amir?'

'To learn English, sir,' Amit said.
'What kind of English?'
‘Top-class English. With big vocabulary,'

'Relax,' Verma sir said. 'Forget big vocabulary in my class,’

'Sir?' Amit said, confused.
Verma sir turned and addressed the whole class, 'Students, all you

have to learn is simple, confident English. Don’t be scared of people
who use big words. These are elitists. They want to scare you with

their big words and deny you an entry into the world of English. Don’t
fall into their trap. Okay?’

Everyone nodded, irrespective of whether they understood Mr
Verma or not, ‘Anyway, let’s get back to “how are you",’ he said.

Verma sir explained the ‘au’ sound in the word ‘hew’ and that it did
not exist in Hindi.

‘Like cow, It is not ca-u, It is a mix of aa and o together. Try,'
The class struggled to utter the simple word. I bet the British would

have struggled just as hard if they tried to speak Bhojpuri. If the