Taking India out of the Indian

Ever since my return from India, I have been mentally stunted. It takes me longer to form sentences, the likelihood of me saying something witty amongst friends becomes more and more abysmal each day. I feel as if I am slowly forgetting how to speak English, or any other language for that matter (i.e. mostly Spanish and French -both of which I invested time in). The most frustrating part is that I can't understand why all of a sudden this is happening. For what feels like no apparent reason, I am starting to think like a fourth grader again -someone who has mastered basic commands and needs, but is now working on honing the style of expression which ultimately creates your personality. So, why the depersonalization?
Part of me thinks it may be the result of trying to spend the last two months earnestly learning Hindi and Kashmiri, both of which are phonetically and structurally 200% different from the English language. The expression of basic commands in Hindi is, undoubtedly, the most uncomplicated and simple way of communication I have ever studied. If a country's language had a characteristic focus (French focuses on sounding beautiful, Spanish on long-winded explanations, English on making exception after exception to a rule), the focus of Hindi would be being as utilitarian as humanly possible. If you want a pencil, you just say pencil hay?, which, literally translated, means "Pencil is there?". Forget about asking if you, the person whom you are addressing, has a pencil which you seek. You just want to know if a pencil exists for your taking within the universe and so, pencil hay? If you want to use the bathroom, the only thing you need to remember is the kither, which means "where". And to put together "Where is the bathroom?" you just have to say Bathroom kither hay?. It's as if the sole purpose of Hindi is to communicate basic needs and express straightforward desires. Even the phrase "How are you?" is expressed as Kya haal hay? which literally means "What is the deal?". In case you haven't noticed already, almost 90% of Indian phrases and sentences that are not commands end with the word "hay". It is this ambiguous well-rounded word that basically is a connector verb between a noun and what you want out of the noun in a sentence. (Note that I haven't even started on Kashmiri. Kashmiri language doesn't even have a written component to it -it is spelled phonetically in Urdu and is learned by mouth alone -so for me to try and explain to you the nuances of Kashmiri would be very long-winded and difficult for the moment.)
But back to the main point. This whittling of my English skills reminds me of something similar I experienced when I studied abroad in Spain as an undergraduate. I remember, halfway through the semester, after taking 4 hours of intensive Spanish language classes four days a week (as well as the actual Spanish interaction that happens in day to day life), I started to have trouble writing emails to friends in English back home. It wasn't as bad as it is here right now, but I definitely caught myself second guessing how to form certain sentences or the spelling of what used to be simple words. I found myself wanting to communicate phrases with Spanish expressions just because it would be more exact in what I actually wanted to say. I was thinking like a Spainard. The irony of this, anyone who knows me can tell, is that I am the least Spanish person you can meet on the planet (another blog on Spain to come). Fortunately, what prevented me from fully forgetting most of my command of the English language was probably the fact that I was surrounded by Americans at all times while in Spain -the only exception being when I was fighting with my OCD roommate about the cleanliness of the apartment we shared (but that's also another post.)
I guess the bottom line is that if you eat, drink, think, sleep and live like an Indian (which I earnestly did for two solid months) at some point, the Indian-ness is going to take a hold on you. But, how long this hold is going to last, I don't know. I can, however, tell you that I am done with being a fourth grader and am ready to move on to year II medical school level English. If I can just take certain parts of India out of myself, I think I can finally restore myself back to normal (maybe not back to the exact way things were before I left, but hopefully a newer shinier Indian Priyanka).