Anant makes sense. I mean his post on the nonsense of dying statements in one's own mother tongue.

He asks:

As I’m dying, I have to remember a language that I hardly speak?
And providentially at hand should be someone who can both understand AND write Tamil?
And If these two conditions are not met my murderer gets away scotfree?

Read the full post here.

Yup, at one glance, I thought that the High Court judgement made sense. People speak in their mother tongues in their dying moments - it is so obvious. But reading this, I realise, the learned judges are only as smart as I am. After all, I also just know so. Is the statement by the court backed up by scientific evidence? I don't think so.

I guess my dying statement would be something on the lines of "arghweeoopthblrurrbguahy%$@". Even I don't know what kinda tongue that is.

But when I make sense. Thats where the problem arises. Say, I am in deep pain and the awareness dawns on me that this is it, I am about to go to the great Nintendo Wii gaming room in heaven, would I speak in the language I write in and talk mostly in? That would be English.

Or would I have a bit of sense to remember that I am in this hardcore North Indian city called Dilli and speak in Hindi (even while getting all the sthreeling and pulling wrong?). Quite likely. depending on where I am and who I am talking to, usually the abuse that comes out of me easily switches between Malayalam, English or Hindi. I think that same instinct would work on the deathbed, deathfootpath, deathundercar or deathbush for me.

And if that dying statement is not admissible in court as legal, I promise to haunt the people who passed this stupid law as a multilingual ghost spouting Kodungalluramma bhakti songs, Metallica and Ghalib.