Mental Excursions

  Zoom in, Zoom out days for some! That Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lifestyles sounds hackneyed now. It is so obvious, that the less said the better it is. It has undeniably transformed everyone’s work-life too and that is also very evident. Though restaurants, stores, malls, government offices, and factories have partially or completely opened for in-person business following the weakening of the second wave, educational institutions, and many corporate offices are delaying opening up to safeguard the health of their employees. Of course, this way they are also saving on maintenance and running expenses besides travel allowance, medical reimbursements, and other perks being paid to the employees. Earlier, video-conferences were few and enjoyed a spot of respect. Not any more! In the work from home (WFH) scenario, suddenly group cam and chat applications like Zoom and Google Meet/Hangout, etc. have become the channels of communication. They are the normal modes of working...

  Mumbo jumbo galore   Boogie-Woogie (Left) Hip-hop (Right) For me, an amateur in linguistics, words have a special fascination. I shared with you last week how reduplicated words caught my attention and the category in focus was ‘exact’ reduplication. Now that you are here on this page, let us give equal respect and attention to the other two types of such expressions as well. The funny fact is that in most such pairs we know and understand one word, the second one might have no meaning or make no sense on its own, yet together they have an altogether different meaning. You would notice that in most cases the warning red line automatically appears under both or one of them in a word document as you type out the two words without the hyphen. Of the two categories, the first is   rhyming reduplicated words where the second word rhymes with the first one. Here are some examples;    1. For those interested in language only for airing their own thoughts, all ...

  Mama, papa, night-night, bye-bye Music of the rhyming words Can can dancers at Moulin Rouge Words create the magic of language, and language whether we think, speak or write in it, is the most expressive form of communication. And they are all created by us humans. Yet sometimes we create words which might make the coming generations wonder what was that one ancestor thinking when he/she said or wrote that word even though it makes perfect sense now that it is a part of the lexicon. Instead of going on like a learned grammarian, I will just tell you the kind of words I am talking about. The examples are bye-bye, flip-flop, chit-chat, hoity-toity, knick-knack, lovey-dovey, riff-raff, topsy-turvy, walkie-talkie, tutti-frutti etc. and hundreds more. In our own mother tongues we use trailing words like chabi- wabi (in Hindi for key) , chabi- shabi (Punjabi), chabi- choobhi (Bangla) ,chai- wai (in Hindi for tea) , chah- shah (Punjabi), chitti-chitti or chinna-chinna (for...

  Youtube - everyone’s tube! https://youtu.be/eQdF8JMCYWo HOW TO DRINK WATER? (Tutorial)  1,100,918 views • Premiered on 29 Feb 2020 I have always worn my badge of tech-illiteracy with confidence, as if it is something to be proud of. So it was no wonder that one day nearly ten years ago I found myself telling someone about an old song and that I could not find it. My last resort, as usual, was my teenage son and I mentioned it to him. He clearly did not share my taste in music and naturally made a face but within a few minutes I heard him playing the song on my Ipad which he then brought to me. Now I was certain where to look for help whenever I faced a similar problem. No need to tell you that I continued to shamelessly exploit that for quite some time. But as was expected, one day in response to my - please find such and such activity for me, he started his sentence with an exasperated ‘ Oh mummy aap bhi na! ruko ’ (Oh mom you! Wait!) and I knew I had crossed the threshol...