Edo-born skillful artisan, Patrick John, speaks Indian language fluently one would think he has lived in Indian or often travels to the country, though he doesn’t have a passport. In this interview with KEHINDE OSASONA he explains how he became proficient in the language and given the Indian name, Rahul.
Can our readers meet you?
My name is Patrick John, I am 36 years old. I am an Isoko man from Obene in Delta state. I live in Darki-biu Community, a suburb of the FCT. I am married with children.
What do you do for a living?
I am an artisan. I am into engineering works like sinking of borehole. I also fix electric fences, home decoration. and so on. In short, I learnt a couple of hand-jobs including motorcycle mechanic to survive.
What about your parents?
My mother is Madam Rhoda from Lugere Town in Adamawa state. My late father was training my siblings and I in school before he parted ways with my mother.
I remember that my mother was an air hostess and worked with an airline then but I can’t recall the name.
She later veered into some business and was always traveling to Chad Republic but after the divorce, she left my siblings and I with my father. We were forced to leave Maiduguri because of activities of insurgents in the state.
When I first met you, you were communicating with someone in Indian language. How did you learn the language?
I was actually born in Maiduguri in Nigeria. Let me just say here that I started speaking the language at age six.
It happened that when I was growing up at age five to six years to be precise, I found my parents watching and listening to Indian films and music and I picked interest.
I stepped up later in life by living around them and that was it. Above all, let me just say it is a gift from God.
At a point, I started loving Indian films and music. I liked listening to Indian cassettes and as I was watching and listening, I was learning the language and grabbing the music vibes.
Surprisingly, I started mastering the language and my parents and people around my vicinity were surprised.
Later in life, I would always bother my parents to buy more cassettes and music so that I can learn new languages and songs and they did.
So, I started speaking the language to friends in the neighbourhood and they would laugh at me because they could not speak it.
Well, the whole thing continued until I finished my secondary school at Success Primary and Secondary School at Abaganaram in Maiduguri. My father, who was a builder then, was doing well until the insurgency war there. So, we left in 2009 or thereabout.
Since I was already above 18 years, I decided to learn some skills and I travelled to Ikirun in Osun state with a man who taught me motorcycle and generator repair for five years.
It was in Ikirun that my mastery of the language was highly noticed and appreciated by people around me and everything started changing for me.
(Cuts in) …I don’t get it, how?
It was when I travelled to Ikirun to work with an Indian company, Prism Steel Rolling Company, and there were a lot of Indian workers and Nigerian workers too, that my mastery of the language improved. I worked there for four years.
I was employed as a domestic staff and I had many friends among them. I was the only black person that was working directly with them.
I became an interpreter and they started loving me. However, some of the workers thought I was just faking it so they would go back to confirm from the Indians whether I was actually communicating in the language or not. It after they were told that I was communication well in the language that they started respecting me.
So, why did you leave Ikirun?
I left Ikirun and travelled to Lagos to work and earn more money but with the mindset of working in another Indian company so I could continue to speak the language and dwell among them.
I got a job at an Iron company, Real Steel Company in Ikorodu, Lagos state, and that was where they named me Rahul.
They gave me that name because they felt I was strong and Rahul in Indian means a strong person.
I was their domestic help and I started speaking the language much better. I was singing, perfecting my speaking and interpreting skills. I became something else.
Was there any form of jealousy from co-workers?
Yes, some of them started behaving funny, they were envious and thought I was being favored but it was not as if they hated me. So, I understood because in my four years there, they showed me so much love and I practically became part of them.
They believed so much in me to the extent that they send me on errands with huge sums of money. They trusted me so much.
I eat with them, attended parties with them and enter where other Nigerians could not enter. I must confess that they showed me favours and gave me tips.
One day, I went to a shopping mall at Ikorodu to buy stuff for my bosses and I was supposed to collect some change from the cashier. Funny enough, he was an Indian and I spoke the language to him and he jumped up and felt happy. We started interacting in Indian language after wards, and he was so happy to hear me speaking so fluently and effortlessly.
Now that you are not around Indians, do you have any challenge speaking it?
The thing is I can’t forget the language and even if I am not around Indians, I still play their songs on my MP and watch their films too.
Again, I still call some of them, which was what you witnessed as we spoke at length in Indian to the admiration of people around.
Have you thought of travelling to India or relocating there one day?
(Hearty laughter) …Well, I do. I remember some friends had advised me to try and visit India but I don’t even own a passport. However, a lot of them promised to help me get a passport and possibly relocate to India. I am still thinking about it but the truth is that I would like to visit the country one day, if God permits.
How much do you know about India? Do
Yes, I know about their foods and I still talk to my Indian friends because I have a lot of them who pamper me sometimes by sending money to me.
I know there are places like Delhi, Mumbai, Yaris, though I have not visited any of these places. I also know their currency is Rupees and their Prime Minister is Shri Narendra Modi.
Do you have any favorite actor or actress in Bollywood?
I always watch their films. I like Abahay Shukla, Sunniel Shetty, Amitabh Bachan and a host of them.
Have you thought of making money by speaking the language? What if you are asked to teach others, will you do that?
Why not, if the opportunity comes; my only challenge however has been that I am not a graduate, but I would love to further my studies and even study the language. If I see a helper, I will definitely do that.
As we speak, I am also training my children to learn the language, watch their films so that they can at least love what their father loves. However, I never force them because I want it to happen naturally.
