Kannada gottilla? Learn maadi!

There’s no denying that ‘Kannada Gottilla’ is a typical retort in an ever-growing, cosmopolitan city like namma Bengaluru.

But instead of indulging in “outsider” bashing for not picking up the local dialect, our ever-friendly city folk are turning to a spirit of camaraderie by teaching the language to those curious and intent on learning it.

The latest in that effort? To teach Kannada through music, something you can get a glimpse of on March 3 at Rangoli Metro Art Centre with city-based musicians like Vasu Dixit and Hemanth Jois.

Powered by Kannada Gottilla, a community that teaches the language over Whatsapp chats, phone calls and Skype even, music is one of the widely used techniques in their language inventory.

“We’ve noticed that it makes learning new words fun and easy through songs. People generally remember the rhythm and words well with this technique,” offers the community’s founder, Anup Maiya.

Having been at it for over 15 months, the team found this event necessary to reach a wider audience and build confidence in their existing students by giving them a stage to practice.

“Music is a universal language and has no barriers. I’m a huge fan of Dr Rajkumar and used to listen to his classics – Gandhada Gudi and Haalu Jenu even though I didn’t understand Kannada!” says Hemanth Ojha, an IT professional from Uttarakhand.

Now based in the city, he has been learning Kannada for over two years and believes that learning through music has been fun because it lets you remember the phrases and words easily.

Picking up the language quite perfectly and even attempting to talk to us in it, he says, “Kannadigas have been historically generous. When we are making our bread and butter from here, the least we can do is to learn the language and respect it.”

Having found resonance with Vasu Dixit’s music, they also roped him in. “Music is a language everyone enjoys. Through it, if we can get people to come together and understand a certain language, then why not?” asks Vasu.

As the lead vocalist of Indian folk rock band Swarathma, Vasu has also sung in Hindi, but he believes that there’s a fine line between being passionate about a language and being a fanatic.

“Bengaluru is a cosmopolitan city, but it doesn’t mean that the language and culture of the place has to be neglected. With language comes art and culture, and as an artiste, it’s my responsibility to keep it alive,” he says, prepping to get people to sing along and make the learning a lot more memorable.