How Proficient Are Indians In English?

Hello everyone. I hope all of you are looking forward to a great weekend. It will be interesting to see who all will catch Dhobi Ghat over the weekend or settle for the confines and luxuries of their home. Honestly, I had no plans of updating here till R-Day(26 Jan). But late last evening, something my dad saw on the road made it mandatory to hit the keys and spark of this debate; "How proficient are Indians in English?"

The announcement on a digital signboard on Victoria Road ( which I assume will spark this debate) said "AOVID ANIL KUMBLE CIRCLE TO MISSION ROAD DUE TO BWSSB WORK". In Bengaluru. Goodness Gracious!!!

The obvious error which our so called HI-TECH workers at the BBMP are oblivious to is that they do not know how to spell AVOID (AOVID here). A certain R K Narayan would have definitely had a heart attack (pun intended).The good folk of the town, who are in favor of making Kannada language compulsory from the primary schooling level ( well a novel concept and which might be essential) and those against it well, lets just say were ears and eyes shut to this brazen and unacceptable misuse of a language. Well it should serve as a wake up call.

Bengaluru (henceforth I urge everybody to shun the use of Bangalore) has been a harbinger of the new technological revolution of the last decade and is comparable to Silicon City,CA ; Shanghai and many more of the likes. Hence it also has been a place where medium of communication has primarily been English. But really has anyone stopped for a while and thought as to how proficient one is in this language? We just head to the drawing board when we want to write TOEFL to achieve our (U)States dreams or when we have to achieve bragging rights in front of someone else. A deeper research unearths that students in their undergraduate courses, use messaging

language in the exams.

Also, interesting to note is the number of bureaucrats, ministers and members of the democratic machinery use English. We have had many a misinterpretations and misconceptions due to some silly mistakes. It is always good to brush up our language skills. It is interesting to note the advocacy of certain people that, in inculcating the very nuances of this language, we are following the Westerners. Frankly, its no harm to have the best of both worlds, isn't it.  

I would, however, like to continue more about this topic only after hearing from all you people, as I feel the common opinion must be honored. I will also write about this in the future. This would be my cue for an update on R-Day.

English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway.

Well lets see whether its funny or serious?