Hum Japan se aaye hain....

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">It''s an unreal conversation. In Hindi. With a troupe of 11 Japanese theatre artistes. But stranger things have been known to happen. Led by the witty Prof Tomio Mizokami, the myriad ensemble comes from Japan to perform two Hindi plays in the city. Even though they have been visiting our subcontinent since 1997, this is their first time to Chandigarh.<br /><br />Polite to a fault, incredibly pithy but seriously humorous in his comments, Prof Mizokami teaches Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali at the Osaka University of Foreign Languages, and has been for the past 35 years. His comfort with these languages is disconcerting, making us wish we could speak at least a smattering of Japanese. Beyond sushi, no other word seems to come to mind! "There are many Indians who come to Japan for its job opportunities. Promoting cultural relations between the two countries has been my objective," he tells. While the resource base of the 80-year-old Hindustani department had been week initially, they now have textbooks readily available. "I also make my students see many Hindi films besides the classic Ramayana," Prof Mizokami affirms. Films like <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Dil To Pagal Hai</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge</span> are favourites.<br /><br />His fondness for our national language stems from its kindness to learners.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />"It''s an exceptionally regular language with a similar word order to Japanese," he reveals. The word order may be similar but letter formation is very different. While Japanese is a jumble of straight lines, the Indian languages are a concoction of curves. "I can teach Devnagri within two weeks," Mizokami says confidently.<br /><br />Since the group consists of more girls than boys (only 2), the Professor reveals that the ratio remains same even at the university. "Nearly 80 per cent of the students are girls, and it can be quite tough looking for plays that are women centric. Because most Hindi literature is male dominated," he states.<br /><br />Their choice of themes is largely comedies because "<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">hasna rulane se aasaan hai</span>," they all aver. While they all want to return to India to perform plays, it is difficult. "You think taking the responsibility of so many girls is easy? It''s too much tension," Mizokami grins.<br /><br />But we know it won''t be long before he takes this tension again!</div> </div>