An auto-rickshaw driver in India once stated with great sagacity that thinking was an elitist privilege. To quote him verbatim "when the stomach growls, the mind is silenced".
Knowledge in India, it seems is also a privilege of the few. Never mind reservations, infrastructure, accessibility or even availability.
Ken acquisition is proportionate to how proficient a person is in English - India's best known colonial leftover.
Educationists universally agree that learning is best when done in the mother tongue, but how, in a country with numerous languages and thousands of dialects, is that possible?
In such a scenario, that is further complicated by politicians fuelling linguistic pride, English emerged as a neutral medium and has gained popularity as it is now viewed as a one-way ticket to upward financial and social mobility.
The general perception, and mostly a reality, is that regional language schools are believed to be of a poor quality because they are often not privately funded resulting in dilapidated structures and underpaid staff. The poor quality schools in turn become the sole option for the poor.
Compounding their problems is a complete disparity in the levels of resources that are available to children in regional schools.
Reading material in higher classes for the sciences and other important disciplines is rarely translated from English and whatever exists is updated with great irregularity.
The students, who, if they do manage to make it to higher learning institutions have even been known to face discrimination from private or convent-educated students and are snickeringly referred to as "vernies" (vernacular).
Globalisation and conclusions that attribute India's IT edge to its people's English skills make it a must have qualification across castes and classes.
Fierce chauvinism in the southern states towards their languages has often shown that if forced to speak in a language other than their mother tongue, they prefer English instead of another Indian language - particularly if it originates north of the Vindhya mountain range.
A peek into any one of the many English-language tutorials that also offer "accent training" modules reveals a mix of men and women, mostly school drop-outs, who believe in its power to redeem them from their status in society.
Though the state and its officials believe - on paper - in the importance of regional language education it is hardly ever translated into better quality schools. A recent report in India
Together even quotes a non-governmental official questioning "How many experts and government officials who tout the benefits of learning in the mother tongue send their children to these schools?"
The English versus Vernacular debate heats up with great passion particularly when literary giants are involved.
Even if it was from V.S. Naipaul, many were still shocked when at a festival of Indian literature, the Nobel laureate said "it cannot be helped if they [regional writers] are not read enough ... if you can't get readership in your local language, we can't do it for you."
Due to an absence of good English translations, a vast repertoire of regional literature remains neglected and undiscovered by many students and readers.
As a result, many students from English-medium schools have a better awareness of Shakespeare and Saki than the richness of Rabindranath Tagore's writings or U.R. Ananthamurthy's literature.
Widespread acceptance
There is a widespread acceptance of the need for English language instruction to be available to all children. There are even movements in rural areas, where the people have asked their governments to include and fund English as a course.
No matter what the nationalists say, English as a language will remain and is possibly the best way of uniting the complex language networks of India. It has proved to be an asset and if provided to more than the elite few, the language might actually help in bridging widening gaps of inequality.
What then, of the regional languages? Considering the mother tongue is acknowledged as the best medium of instruction, a system that teaches in the child's mother tongue and incorporates a proper English language curriculum could be the way to go.
As is visible in some Indian states, a child's dexterity for linguistic grasping that is well supported by a willing government plan can work. In fact, it can work quite well.
