Mother Tongue

There is a story in Indian history, which goes something like this:

One man was expert in many languages. He went to a king and challanged the court to find out what his mother tongue was. Many people tried different ways, but to no avail. Man was equally adept in all the languages. Everybody gave up. Finally the responsibility fell on the intelligent and shrewd Prime Minister. On his able shoulders was the responsibility of saving the reputation of the king. He too made some attempts, bidding time to find an opening into this person. It was a chilly winter night. The Prime Minister went to the man in deep sleep late into the night. He threw a bucket of very cold water on the sleeping man. The man woke up shivering and yelling. THAT was his mother tongue. The man bowed with respect to the intelligence of the Prime Minister.

Mother tongue easily speaks the language of our heart. Personally I am most comfortable when expressing my feeelings, my emotions, anything that is intense to me. I am quite fluent in English too, I have done most of my academic learning in English, all technical, logical thoughts come naturally in English to me. But when something deeper than thoughts is to be expressed it comes automatically in my mother tongue. I feel that my mother tongue, marathi, is most suited to express feelings. But many others feel their mother tongue is most suited for their expressions.