During the last couple of years my grandson was much embarrassed while taking Nepali dictation from me. On checking why he did so, I found my own fault as his homework should be done according to a lately applied grammar that his A-one school was practising. Then I knew he was following the recently government-accredited varnavinyas (letters and spelling), and its dictionary and usage that was instructing a controversial application. It disorientated me indeed, because my so far learnt generative grammar of the sanatan devanagari Nepali had been disestablished. I was afraid I could fail its exam to wake up in disgrace.

I meditated upon the old grammar rules I had learnt with the Nepali educators and litterateurs, and concluded that it has disestablished us to an elaborate hoax in the vernacular norms. So I tingled with fear that Nepali was getting Anglicised to be an intended victim of Romanised English characters. Two decades past, when in Indonesia, almost the same happened to me when bahasa (for bhasha) was printed in a Bali newspaper in Roman characters to indicate a clear shift from its homegrown brace.

As Anglicising misrepresenting Devanagari was eating me up, another news item to fill me with excitement returned one morning. It read that the Sanatan Varnavinyas and grammar was back to the fold because it had defended and reclaimed the status quo under government proclamation. It all proved that my Nepali was standard and coaching my grandson too was so. In my pride and disillusion then, I boasted of my vernacular and culture both to the specific identity of being a Nepali.

The verbal communication and literature heredity we have gave me an immediate dream to build a standard Nepali usage in the media, law, and education. The dream of a Sanatan trend directed me for an overall regulation under a high-level commission, which could set down correct phrases or expressions in signboards and notice boards, ad jingles and classified ads, marketing labels and slogan manifestos, not excluding the professionals. In the fast, digitalised global village, anyone can take it as realistic for enhancing the country’s image under such a national body. If one asks you about where to learn standard English, you reply - follow BBC and CNN. With pride and glory you can likewise say - follow Nepali electronic and print media for standard Nepali.