The C-Words of the day!

The Common Wealth Games 2010 to be hosted in New Delhi, our capital, brings into focus some aspects of India that concern the common citizen of the country – the Big Cs that threaten to engulf our nation – Corruption, Carelessness, Callousness, Compromise! The TV cameras are concentrating on Calmadi (sorry, Kalmadi) ever since the allegations made by channels about rampant corruption in handing out contracts is being aired.

While it is too early to comment about the corruption charges levelled against the Committees entrusted with the construction of stadia, the general reaction is to believe that cash has (Read: Crores have) been made in the awarding of construction contracts! The common man finds it convenient to believe that corruption in such projects is the norm rather than the exception. Why are we such harsh critics of ourselves, one wonders?

But this post is not about the singular Big C – Corruption, which has pervaded our landscape and spread like Cancer - but several others like Carelessness and Callousness. Channels have highlighted the slipshod work carried out like the open electrical wires, which could be a safety hazard for those planning to grace the sporting events scheduled there in October this year.

Even the work related to the profiling of visitors and related security measures to prevent terrorist attacks are behind schedule and may need to be circumvented if the games are to proceed as scheduled, if newspaper reports are to be believed. This means we would have compromised on the security measures as well!

One would have hoped for the hosting of the Commonwealth Games 2010, would have promoted camaraderie amongst participating nations and boosted competitiveness amongst citizens of participating countries rather than the wrong C’s becoming the Central focus! Yes, like Good Cholesterol, there are Good C's too! One can only pray and hope that there is no commotion and the event will be remembered more as a Celebration than a Calamity!

Blogger’s Post-script - If we cerebrate for a moment, the aforesaid Cs are part and parcel of everyday life of our countrymen – but let us concentrate on the Common Wealth Games for now and leave the other manifestations of the Cs for another post – or perhaps, a Book of epic proportions!

Now you too can 'Palinate' !

It sounds like an English word, but isn’t one, proclaimed one and all, when Sarah Palin uttered the hitherto unknown word “refudiate”.

Sarah promptly urged her followers on Twitter, to celebrate the formation of a new word, instead of mocking at her gaffe, pointing out how even William Shakespeare loved to coin new words thus.
“English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”

One wonders how the world reacted when Shakespeare coined ‘lonely’ in a world that only recognised ‘alone’. They probably had been the well-known bard to do what he was best at – to coin new words. Here is a list of words coined by Shakespeare which are today part of every English speaker’s vocabulary.

The press instead compared her slip of the tongue to the recent Bushisms that we had been treated to not in the distant past. So Sarah was, in a sense ‘misunderestimated’ - to borrow George Bush’s coinage, another word having originated under similar circumstances. Since Bushisms cover a wide range of oral goof-ups, maybe we ought to have a new word for the phenomenon of creating a new word, unintentionally, lets dedicate it to Sarah Palin and call it

“Palinate - v. to palinate – to unintentionally create new words”

But then, we all do use words that don’t exist in the dictionary, knowingly or unknowingly. You may be aware of the vastly common word used by Indians – “prepone”, which incidentally does not exist! Now this word makes a lot of sense and ought to shake away its “non-word” tag to enter all dictionaries right-away. If putting of a meeting is postponed, advancing one ought to be preponed, what say?

While language critics have posted online messages rubbishing Palin’s comparing her coinage to that of Shakespeare, who coined words with distinctly different meaning, unlike her Freudian formation. So a word like ‘prepone’ not only score over refudiate, in that it conveys the intention and have a distinct logical meaning.

And while we used to always get invitations for events, we now begin getting an ‘invite’. “Didn’t you get my invite?” I am asked, to which I cannot resist the temptation to reply, “Anyway, I am busy and would have sent you my ‘refuse’, in any case!” If ‘my invite’ s OK, “my refuse” got to be OK, I guess!

Troubled by the question about “when does a word really become a word”, I had posed this question to the well-known Anu Garg, founder of “Wordsmith.org”, whom I had met during his visit to Mumbai.

A word, according to him becomes a word, the moment it is formed – there is no need for it to enter a dictionary, which it will eventually do if the word is in use reasonably frequently by well-known publications.

Lexicographers have their own standards for admitting words into their dictionaries, but they all need the word to be widely used. But celebrities appearing on media channels have a special charm – Sarah Palin’s word ‘refudiate’ made it to the online Urban Dictionary in a matter of days!

“Refudiate: A term used to indicate the underlying racism of the speaker. If you as a racist need another group to give up their culture you ask that group to refudiate their beliefs and culture. Users of this term reject the English language, facts, rationalism and black people.” Sarah Palin asked NY Muslims to "refudiate" their mosque near the 9/11 WTC site.

You can even print a T-shirt and have a mug with this creation on it here!

Writers are not so lucky, though. They’ve got to coin it and then even popularise it before their coinage is acknowledged and widely used for this purpose. Though I have been able to publish my own coined word, “predictament” – a predicament to predict - in my blog and my recent article in the Times of India, the word will need wider usage and more appearances, before it enters a dictionary. Do let me know if you find it in a dictionary you use!

Blogger’s Post-scripts:

1. 1. Sarah Palin’s popularity in India was soaring in late 2008, but was shocked to see a restaurant serve Palin Dosa! Read about it in my post “Palin Talk” here.

2. Regular readers of my blog would be aware of my penchant for new words. But for those of you who aren’t may want to read the following posts.

A million words.

Words of the Year 2008

Words of the Year 2009

Aur Kya, Pak?

So after all the best efforts from our side, Aman ki Asha has turned into a Nirasha. I am saying ‘our side’ because I am not sure about the other side. In the past several months, columnists and bloggers have been debating over how to deal with our wayward neighbouring state, which has gone from strength to super-strength in the field of new-age worldwide terrorism – from setting up training camps to nurturing masterminds drawn from military bodies to plan and execute terrorist attacks on innocent civilians and yet escape from international action of the UN, by calling them actions of “non-state actors”!

This ‘non-state actors’ card of Pak, put us Indians in a dharma-sankat of sorts. How can any country fight another, if their home-grown, but not state-sponsored mind you - terrorist outfits - act spontaneously and attack innocent people in other countries? It would need to distinguish between the people of that country from the unlawful terrorist outfits thriving therein. Wont they? While some of us have been insisting that dialogues with Pakistan must continue, others have been sceptical about the “lets talk” proposal, demanding tougher options and discarding it as a sign of weakness.

Some have argued that when we say we must talk, does not mean we must speak “sweet nothings”, but instead talk – talk tough – demand action on terrorists – put a stop to the only visible exports from that country – of fully trained, highly motivated, trigger-happy jihadi youngsters, who have no other options to earn a living. So that is what most of those who wanted talks wished the negotiating team to do – talk tough!

“Stop it – or else…….” Or else, what, one wonders?

Reminds me of a joke about a Texan cowboy who rode on his horse to a wayside inn for a drink and meal and then went off to sleep. When he woke up, he found that his horse had been stolen! He climbed to the rooftop of the wayside inn, fired a round into the sky and shouted “Hey listen you guys! If you don’t return my horse, I will do, what I did in Texas!”.
Nobody turned up with his horse. After delivering the threat on a higher pitch couple of times, he returned to his seat to find the owner of the Inn waiting to ask him “What did you do in Texas, Sir?” “Well” he replied, pulling his hat over his face, “I walked back home!”.

Our situation is no different. We want them to sit up and listen and to take action on what they call ‘non-state actors’. But how committed are they to do it? If the leads from the investigation of David Coleman Headley, were to be believed, we could now say that the officials of the ISI were involved in the terrorism attack on Mumbai. If this is proved….hey wait, but Pakistan will demand evidence - something that their eyes are not designed to spot, even if it were to stare in their face…. that would mean they also have “State Actors” playing along “Non-State Actors”!

Indians will have debates, more debates, talks, and more talks. Some experts are still saying we should continue to have people to people contacts. Sure we can continue our pak-pak, as we usually do over cellphones - never hang up and ask “Aur kya?”, "Aur bata" - It will keep us talking forever!

So there you are –
Pak has “Non-state actors” and “State actors”
India has “State non-actors” and “Non-State non-actors”!
And Pak knows that!

Blogger’s Post-script – Like the remaining Billions of Indians, yours truly is equally at his wits’ end about how to deal with Pak. Without really wanting to hurt any of those, who think they know, of course!

My Paulished ArticKle in TOI

Last week witnessed an electrifying finish to the FIFA world cup spectacle, which was held in South Africa. Though India does not figure anywhere on the football playing countries’ map, there were pockets of passionate footballers and enthusiasts following the games at SA. Twitter and Facebook was also abuzz with the goings on – the teams they backed, the players they pinned their hopes on, etc.

But the real fun tweeple were having, clearly, was posting humorous lines about the Vuvuzela, Shakira’s Waka Waka and Psychic Paul, the celebrity octopus, who predicted accurately the winner of Germany’s games, the semis and the finals! For a writer or blogger, looking out for a subject to write about forms the biggest challenge and online networking sites give us some of the masala to mull about. Soon ideas took shape and I found myself able to weave together some word-plays, humorous propositions, were Psychic Paul to accept offers to come to India!



I sent in my submission on Saturday 10th July and on Sunday, I was overjoyed to get a response from the TOI editorial staff that my articKle would be published soon.

If you have not yet read my humorous piece published in the Times of India on Tuesday, 13th July 2010, (now that was real quick) do read it by clicking on the link below:

Chasing the Oracle

I would like to share with you some of the lines edited by the TOI editorial team due to its Hindi content:

1. Paul, don’t think you are “Paul do Paul ka Mahir” and that you will go into oblivion after the FIFA finals, you could make it to the IIFA next year. From FIFA to IIFA!

2. Get on from singing “Paul bhar ke liye koi hame pyaar kar le, jhootha hi sahi” and make your moves to your rightful place in Bollywood.

3. dance with your co-stars around plastic trees to the tunes of Ashtam-da, or at least that is what the industry will call him after the release of the film.

4. Phillumy people will say “Atthon ungliyaan ghee mein aur sar kadhai mein”


Blogger’s Post-Scripts (usually containing more stuff than the post itself):
1. Paul may just be available to our folks interested in Astrological predictions but then he may call himself Be-bhaan Aath-pav-wala to give Bejaan Daruwala, who turned 80 last weekend, a run for his money. Or being attributed to Psychic powers may also mean he dons saffron robes and call himself Paul-Anand baba and build an ashram to serve his followers.

2. My friends were equally creative in their feedback, one of them reminded me how I had missed mentioning the MET department – to which I respond – I did not forget them – they were victims of paucity of print space (word limits, you see).

3. Another picked up the thread from my piece and wrote in to tell me that my article was “well-written in a Paulished language”. Thanks, buddy for getting the beat right! And also to a fellow blogger, who renamed me ‘Paulikar’ for this moment, atleast.

4. Thanks to all my friends, who sent in encouraging words of appreciation by SMSes, emails, calls…

5. Thanks TOI for picking my article and understanding the topicality of the subject!

6. Finally, I cant forget to thank Psychic Paul, the Octopus, for finally giving me a gr8 subject to write about, can I? !!!!!!!!