OBSERVATION - IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

School days emphasised on our language skills. Communication in English was mandatory and THE HINDU was the prescription for improving our standards. The right word in the right place was given the utmost importance. Soon English was replaced by (I)nglish followed by (KAN)glish. Of late the influx of the north Indians has let us have our own style of (HIN)glish too. These dialects add to the wide variety of dialects already smothering the country. We used to have a ten mark portion aside for framing our own sentences in the English paper of examinations. The word "one" with a specific mention to be used other than for its numeric value was the doosra of those days. One had to exercise one's grey matter to frame one such sentence. The lessons of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and Radhakrishna set us thinking on the varied expressions of communication in the language. Radhakrishna was his eloquent best with a generous sprinkling of complex and compound sentences. His speeches were the best to understand the various clauses of the language. Does language matter so much?
Can we not use any term as long as it iw understood correctly? These queries had been posed to me time and again. Some of my friends used to compare me to the epic poets and desire that I frame my sentences in a short crisp manner to facilitate easy comprehension. I used to look around me for a suitable example to drive home my point of view.

Lo and behold! Today's newspaper had a wonderful caption which drew my attention. It read "NATION CELEBRATES GOOD FRIDAY". The occasion of Good Friday is marked by solemnity. The Son of God and the messiah was crucified on this day. Apparently, this could not call for a celebration. The right word would have been "observe" . The caption could have read as " NATION OBSERVES GOOD FRIDAY" . We do not celebrate anybody's demise. Similarly, the sports columnists generally tend to pen " On the demise of X, India tottered". The word "demise" is ordinarily used to indicate the ultimate departure from planet Earth and not the loss of a wicket. The word that could have been appropriately used is "exit" or "departure". The virtues of knowing the language correctly is lost. Today, if any one would attempt correcting such a wrong he would be termed a snob or a delinquent. Unfortunately for these souls the beauty of a language and the import of every word is lost on them. No two words in the dictionary mean the same. They are different albeit subtle differences qualify them to be synonyms.

Urdu poetry would seldom be understood since its words in this language are itself sheer poetry. Khushwant Singh has through his columns made Urdu poetry a fascinating part of our lives. Probably to appreciate the importance of a specific word, the need to educate people in Urdu should be considered. Hopefully we will start observing Good Friday and celebrating Diwali in the near future.