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The Significance of a Name
R a v n i s h ਰਵਨੀਸ਼
"rays of light"
Growing up as a first generation Punjabi-Canadian, I have come to terms of the significance of my name, and its pronunciation and therefore, the mis-pronunciation. In correcting other folks to pronounce my name phonetically, pushes for the racial justice of name-based microaggressions in which the Punjabi community face in Western society. The following audio clip is the different mispronunciations I have heard growing up in accordance to my name.
The significance of my name is the way in which it connects me to my Punjabi heritage and my mother tongue, and correcting folks that mispronounce or mis-name I hope enacts as creating anti-colonial spaces for other first-generation folks facing the same discrimination.
There is a sense of embarrassment and anxiety when the need to correct your own name for others or create an easier version, and acts as a way to minimize/ erase a vital aspect to a persons connection to their heritage. Eg: changing a name on a resume to get rid of any racial cues.
MOTHER TONGUE
A short creative video to showcase (my personal experience) growing up learning how to read and write both Punjabi and English as a first- generation Punjabi-Canadian.
* A lot* of the peers I grew up in central Brampton shared a similar experience in going to Punjabi school on the weekends and weeknights while simultaneously also learning how to read, write and speak English from gradeschool.
This creative short is in means to tackle the stereotypes of Punjabi being a "harsh" tongue, and demonstrate the parallel beauty in learning a new language. The approach is to showcase other Punjabi folks a relatable narrative in which the feelings of pride and excitement are unleashed rather than embarrassment of speaking their mother tongue.
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The following short creative written piece is in the context of not just learning and embracing two identities through non-verbal (written) but, the context of these two identities in correspondance to Pinglish with speech.
Spoken
Are you a middle-class 21-year-old Punjabi-Canadian woman who has been raised in a predominantly brown neighbourhood where you must switch dialect codes when talking to people from other cities?
Maybe, I wouldn’t know. What I’m trying to get at before I lose my mind, (I mean train of thought) is that it took me a long time to realize that I am subconsciously switching the way I talk to people because of the embarrassment of me feeling less than or unintelligent.
Kidda? Teek ya? Yoo what’s gooood Rav? Mixing vernacular language with south side Brampton dialect, only Punjabi kids from Brampton understand. It was the way we were taught and cultivated into the first-generation brown kids of Brampton. It’s just how we were, my mistake, how we still are. I talk a certain way, and someone asks "you’re from Brampton, right?" "Yeah?" "Yeah, I can tell". And not knowing how to react I just process it as an embarrassing encounter.
Somehow, my worth is claimed by the pronunciation of words and my discourse is set to a side.
I learned about code-switching at a young age, not in theory but, in experientially. (I learned that this was actually a term in my undergrad). A story that sticks with my identity and Pinglish is when the soccer team I played on in middle-school consistented of mostly Punjabi kids like myself. Sometimes we would mix Punjabi and English with each other when playing against other teams because that's what we were used to doing growing up. I remember once a coach from the other side said to the ref, " tell them to stop speaking whatever they are it sounds like they're swearing at us ". When in reality we were just calling each others names and saying "pass the ball"!
The feeling of feeling othered.
The following Punjabi lettering (Gurmukhi), is done by a Punjabi-Canadian artist Keerat Kaur
The importance of showcasing this artistic piece is to demonstrate the interconnection of both Punjabi and English lettering, phonetic pronunciation and a word-image relationship. The letters in which create my name and a learning tool for phonetical pronunciation. A tool I find largely useful for both the Punjabi community and folks from other communities.
Inspiration for this page:
Excerpt from Rupi Kaur's, The Sun and Her Flowers. This poem inspired this page in taking pride, passion and acceptance of being a Punjabi-Canadian who speaks both Punjabi and English.
Inspired the artistic approach in demonstrating the divide of growing up with two identities in this page's short video.
Excerpt from Amrita Pritam on the carnage of 1947 partition. This poem inspired this page in showcasing the beauty of poetry transcending into a multitude of languages.
Also speaks on the disrupted and splitting heritage of many Punjabi families during the partition of India and Pakistan.