July 19, 2007 - Chennai, India
"One of these things is not like the others."
~ Bert & Ernie, Sesame Street
In the Indian Constitution there are 22 "official languages" recognized.
+ 1,682 mother tongues
+ Over 3,000 dialects & sub-languages
+ 92 languages are taught in schools nationwide
*The Indian Government would like Hindi to be the primary language, but the countries people will never allow this to happen.
The United States of America, the most diverse country in the world, has only one "official language".
I was determined to watch the opening night of Harry Potter in Hindi, however, everywhere I went the movie was only showing in English. I was also unable to attend the opening night, due to sold out tickets and my continuing river sickness.
On the second night, I did get a ticket and entered the movie after the lights were down. As I walked the aisle to my seat, the sound of whispers rose.
In India, there are intermissions halfway through the movie for selling popcorn and taking a break. When the lights went up, at least a hundred people turned to stare at me; the different colored individual in a sea of like colored people. I started to sing to myself, "one of these things is not like the others".
