Alistar, who loves traveling, is visiting India and his trip includes Mumbai (previously Bombay), Veraval, Udaipur, Jaipur, Delhi and Agra. The two week trip was well planned together with a friend from India, Diya, who will accompany Alistar as a tour guide, friend and interpreter. Diya and Alistar are net-friends, met each other in the online chat room few years ago. Diya, being Indian origin can speak national language “Hindi”, mother tongue “Gujarati”, and business language “English”. Alistar communicates with Diya in English; however, he has sound knowledge of French as well. Alistar is interested in various ethnic languages, and is keen to learn Gujarati from Diya.
Alistar read about the country and its history, long before his arrival. He has seen plenty of pictures, relish Indian food, and also watched many Hindi (Bollywood) movies. On his arrival at Mumbai
International Airport, Diya and her brother greeted him with “Namaste” - gesture used when bowing by bringing of both hands together, palms touching, in front of the person. Alistar is glad, as he is in group of people who speak the own language and knows how to deal and bargain with the local people. He is also pleased to have been introduced with some of the Diya’s friends and family, and very happy to have made new friends in that part of the world. Raadha, Rajiv, Raj, Sharda are all very kind to him, and so far, he is having great time together.
Alistar, avid learner of language shows interests in learning Gujarati. Every now and then, he repeats the short sentences or words spoken by Diya and her friends. However, he could not understand what it means! Also, he has no clue about Gujarati Parts-of-Speech and the accent makes him puzzled. Diya, well acquainted in Gujarati and English, mentions that Gujarati words can be divided into: Open Class and Closed Class. Open class consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, while closed class consists of pronouns and other noun adjuncts, verb adjuncts, conjunctions and others. After a while, Diya came with a strategy to help his bewildered friend. Since Alistar cannot stay longer then two weeks, Diya will teach certain words, sentences and brief knowledge about noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, etc. Within this short span of time, Alistar will try to learn as much as possible to get familiar with Gujarati.
Diya: In Gujarati, gender markers are ‘O’ (masculine), ‘E’ (feminine) and ‘AO’ (neutral/ plural). During their conversation, Diya tells Alistar, “I have two kids, one boy and one girl”. In Gujarati it translates into “ Maare bey barak che, ek chokro ane ek chokri” ( Maare[I] Bey[two] barak[kids] che[is/have], ek[one] Chokro[son] ane[and] ek Chokre[daughter])
Visiting Mumbai, Alistar was fascinated by “Gateway of India”, the remarkable Victorian buildings constructed on the edge of oval ground in the Fort Area, High Court, Bombay University and Rajabai Clock Tower. During the day, a nice walk along the Marine Drive to Chowpatty Beach, and a horse carriage, at night hours are interesting and exciting. The memorable, interesting visit was a day out to Elephanta Island where there are some rock-cut temples & caves. Leopold Cafe and Bar in Colaba, a lovely place to stop for a drink and dinner. So far, Alistar and Diya visited major places of Mumbai and now they are heading towards Veraval. Diya: Gujarati Adjectives fall into two categories: (1) Variable and (2) Invariable.Variable adjectives vary in terms of the gender and number of the nouns they modify, whereas the invariable adjectives do not vary.
Example (Variable Adjective):
Saru chokru (Saru [Beautiful, Adj.] chokru [child])
Sari Chokri (Sari [Beautiful, Adj.] chokri [Girl])
Saro Chokro (Saro [Beautiful, Adj.] Chokro [Boy])
Example (Invariable Adjective)
Sundar Chokru (Sundar [Beautiful, Adj.] chokru [child])
Sundar Chokro (Sundar ([Beautiful, Adj.], Chokro [Boy])
Sundar Chokri (Sundar [Beautiful, Adj.], Chokri [Girl])
English: This is a beautiful child.
Gujarati: Aa [This] Sundar [beautiful] chokru [child] che [is]
Upon visiting Veraval, Alistar discovers more about Hindu culture and temples. Veraval is famous for Somnath Temple; it has been destroyed six times by Islamic rulers during 1024 – 1706, and has been rebuilt every single time. During 1024, the raid of Mahmud Ghazni, the temple and citadel were ransacked, and more than 50,000 defenders were massacred. The stop of Veraval was less than 24 hours because of connecting trains from Veraval to Udaipur. As Alistar got some familiarity with Noun and Adjective, Diya explains about Gujarati “Verb” on their way towards Udaipur. Diya: Gujarati Verbs (non-inflected) have the following structure: verb stem + infinitive.
Example:
Has-vuN [to laugh]
(verb stem + infinitive)
raD-vuN [to cry]
(verb stem + infinitive)
Kap-vuN [to cut]
(verb stem + infinitive)
Ap-vuN [to give]
(verb stem + infinitive)
Udaipur, Rajasthan’s most romantic city! The stay at the Udai Kothi Hotel with its lovely swimming pool on the rooftop was a memorable experience. The traditional hotel food, the chicken & fish tandoori was really yummy! At twilight, Diya and Alistar enjoyed Mango-Lassi and fruit cocktail. In Udaipur, major visits include the City Palace, a boat ride on Lake Pichola passing by Jagniwas Island, its Lake Palace Hotel and also a quick stop in Jagmandir Island. Before final departure from Udaipur, Alistar had breathtaking views from Sajjan Garh at sunset! Diya: Like adjective, adverbs are also variable and non-variable in Gujarati. Variable adverbs agree with the noun with which the verb agrees. There are various types of adverbs. Some of them are adverb of time, adverb of place, adverb of manner, adverb of order, adverb of doubt, adverb of frequency, adverb of negative and connecting verbs.
Adverb of:
Time: Aaje[today], Kale[tomorrow], savare[morning],Bapore[afternoon], Sanje[evening]
Place: Ahi[here], Tya[there], najik-thi[from-closer], door-thi[from-far]
Manner: fatafat [quickly], achanak[suddenly], Gem-Tem [some-how]
Order: Pehla[first], Pachi[next], chhele/aakhre[last],
Quantity: Ghanu[a lot], Thodu[Little], Barobar[appropriate]
Doubt: Kadatch[maybe], kya-rek[Sometimes], Motey-bhage[mostly]
Frequency: Roj [Daily], vaaranvaar[always]
Negative: Na/Nahi [No]
Connecting: Pun[but], vadhuma[additionally]
Few hours drive from Udaipur is Jaipur, - The Rajasthan’s pink city! The people in Jaipur were friendly. The food was delicious, and enjoyed vegetarian food as well. The major visit during the stay of Jaipur were, Hawa Mahal, Old City also known as Pink City, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar as well as Amber Fort, about 11km north of Jaipur. The Elephant ride was amazing and thrilling! Only five days of the trip were remaining and Alistar arrived at the capital of India, Delhi. Once again, Alistar finds this place over crowded like Mumbai but less chaotic. The arrival at Delhi railway station was scary, two rickshaw drivers fighting for us, but all ended peacefully, thanks to Diya. Two days to visit entire Delhi is not enough, however, we managed to see world famous tallest brick minaret “Qutb Minar”, “Bahai Temple”, “Red Fort” - palace for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, “Raj Ghat” a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, “India Gate” monument built to commemorate the Indian soldiers who died in the World War I and the Afghan Wars.
The final destination of the trip was crown city of Uttar Pradesh, Agra. A one day tour from Delhi to Agra, fabulous place where all tourists and visitors get fascinated and speechless in front of the spectacular world heritage white marble mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, the most extravagant monument ever built for “LOVE”! Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. That was the summit of the whole trip to India and a place which cannot be forgotten.
