Carmel School & Kendriya Vidyalaya set my education base. Brought up between friends who were non Assamese. I speak Assamese at home and no I don't abuse around streets like am selling Bananas! Moreover, I am proud to speak Hindi as any North Indian and no one can make out with my accent that am actually from Assam.
I know the alphabets and even can read the local newspaper though not affluently. Being treated like an outsider or non existent is suffocating. But here's the irony, if we check on the statistics, more of today's Assamese youth reside outside Assam and learn other languages like Kannada, Tamil, Haryanvi just to blend themselves in! That can either be for studies, work or even getting married.
I've friends who are from Kerala and dunno how to read or write Malyalam and they are cool with it. Their folks are cool with it and so is their society. When does one lose his/her identity? I believe it's then when I being an Assamese portray myself as a Non Assamese and pretend to be someone different. I hope they get the point!
Reading or Writing a language and speaking the same fluently cannot be a reason to being a Hardcore Assamese. It's one's personal choice which can also arise from situation. Even though I don't know how to read or write my native language I'm an Assamese by heart and no one can change that. I don't need to keep long hair or a goatee or a tattoo or do joints. Judging me just for that sick reason only makes me judge them being sick and loser. They fail to understand that when Assamese youth go outside Assam they also bring Assam outside to those states which can be the culture, the music, the ethnicity and not to forget, the food.
I think we Assamese ought to keep a big heart to their own people as much as they show to outsiders. As someone said, home is where the heart is!
