Mental Excursions

Chuckle time! It has been some months since I brought to you the pictures of signboards which I have seen or my friends have sent me and which have made me stop for a minute and wonder- what the heck! Today is the right time for you too to do so, smile, chuckle, comment. The deed is already done, so neither the grammar police, nor the wise people can correct them.  (Top photo)-  A friend of a friend of a friend saw this board. My request is, whoever finds this ( and the next one,  most probably in USA) for the sake of the general good, please share the location. Now why would somebody be selling a husband who just sits there on the sofa, peacefully watching TV, with the remote in hand? And, what is the going rate for such husbands? It is her big day today, why would anyone say ‘no’ unless she is Countess Dracula and you have been kidnapped to marry her. By the way, the Hindi version says ‘bribe’. Will the Radisson, Gurugram management clarify if it is a promise/offer to...

When words are two-faced Language is fascinating for most of us. Does anyone know when the first word was spoken, understood or communicated by a human? Yet now we have thousands of languages and hundreds of rules to follow when we use them. Like people, words too can be two-faced, have opposite meanings and therefore, seem confusing or disconcerting. Such words have a name -contronyms, where the two meanings contradict each other. An easy example I can give is the word dust as verb. We use dust to express dusting the furniture, books, shelves which means removing dust from somewhere. On the other hand, dust can also mean to add/sprinkle e.g., to dust the cake with cocoa/sugar/cinnamon in their powder form.   Such words are also called Janus words, deriving the name from the ancient Roman god Janus who had two faces. His face looked in the opposite directions. Interestingly, that is how the month of January also got its name. I have found a long list of contronyms, but t...

Happy Independence Day to selfie patriots Only two more days left for everyone to enter the undeclared contest for top position in the spirit of patriotism. The 15 th of August is the day when without feeling uncomfortable, awkward or self-conscious, every Indian can beat his/her chest and openly declare love for the country, shout slogans about its greatness, cook recipes in orange and green, change the display profile on social media accounts to the Indian tricolour or be seen waving one and beaming, in selfies. It brings to my mind some notions which perhaps cause us to misinterpret the terms independence, nationalism and patriotism. Once a year why can’t we keep our political biases aside and in the true spirit of nationalism, acknowledge some people who have made unpublicised contributions to the true spirit of India? Most of us have heard of Bhagat Singh, the brave Indian freedom fighter who challenged the decisions of the British rulers and was hanged to death at the yo...