The liberating English

Now they say that about wordsmith(ing), weaving magic with words, or however else one expresses this ‘thrill’ that you feel chancing upon some deft, audacious threading of two words or an expression that shouldn’t have been there (or joined) in the first place. The thrill down the spine is not so much respect for the ‘puritan’ language but for the sheer devilry of the person who maneuvers the language, but does not mutilate it…

Also there’s something magical that is exchanged in that moment between the ‘author of the maneuver’ to the (one-out-of-ten) listener, who understands, smiles & revels in the magic of it.

Honestly, this is the thrill that keeps my reading alive, in figuring out the numerous impudent ways of expressing a single idea, or thought.

Just like the Compulsive Confessor’s http://www.thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com/ manic reaction to a friend’s matter-of-factness, I quote from the blog:

Like, recently? We were chatting about men, more specifically the men in my life, and he said, "Well, you're lovely till you have your first meltdown, so you should avoid that." And I was just so struck by that. My meltdown! How awesome! It had a word then, the drunk calling at three am, the weepy smoke breaks at work, the need to ask why why why don't you feel the same way about me. And such a succint word too.

I too just loved the expression ‘meltdown’ – so summarizing of the state(s) we all have been in, meltdowns after meltdowns till you know the order, the smell, the ‘what’s next’ of it and till they dwindle to a watershed and you revive and pick up the pieces; till the next meltdown hits you.

I have this friend Senjam Rajsekhar who’s recently joined the ranks of us married folks. He stayed with us this New Year’s Eve at this bungalow in Lonavla, that we spent that weekend in. Raj was freshly courting, so he had his girlfriend in toe (the same girl he’s married this month), in fact on his first week of physical time spent together. It was marvelous to watch him in action, amusing resemblance to a squirrel on the ‘brink’, perky, eager and subtly attentive to all her fancies. The closest I could express my amusement is when I remarked 'you look at the ‘Precipice of Happiness’'. Such disjointed words, almost balanced at the two ends of a match-stick, but making absolute sense only in the context that it was born. Am glad Raj got the import of it, no wonder he kept referring to his state as that for the rest of our stay!!

Really the magical alignment of seemingly disjointed words, in a certain context, gives me this sense of the marvelous. If the author is dexterous, fluid and most unexpected, that then is ‘Sone Pe Suhaga’.

I’ll keep adding to this list.

An Economy of Agents & Genders

I visited the RTO yesterday for the momentous ‘cancellation of hypothecation’ of my car … In English, my car’s EMI cycle is complete and the bank has expressed its no objection for the car to become completely mine… blah blah!!.

So I set off, pretty clearly with a bit of trepidation, just like all us private sector types when we are about to visit a Govt. run department that has the power to allow or disallow your candidacy for citizenship or some such critical ‘proof of existence’.

A smattering of rows of buildings, mostly dilapidated, sprawling & unkempt vacant spaces being used for parking vehicles of all sizes. As usual Govt. owned premises being the most privileged and inundated with length(s) of acres. I was hit by the teeming nos., and immediately a wave of helplessness. First, the sea of men - I was the only woman in the visible vicinity (and perhaps the only human with a trace of a deodorant on me!!), amidst the sea of Agents teeming around to push papers for various ‘vehicle-owners’.

Second, the visual chaos of RTO officials spread across building blocks A, B, C, D; accessible to lesser mortals across dusty windows - discernible only by imaginary nos. ‘How am I ever going to get across to anyone?’- was the dominant panic reflex to this sight.

But the day had something else in store for me. I went to approx. 15 different officials, twice or thrice to the same guy in some instances. Each time to my wonderment politely guided, almost pedantically directed to the right window, at times papers voluntarily put in order, rearranged and stapled for processing, average waiting time of maximum 2 mins. at each official’s desk. Every time aided, guided, treated with fair dignity, at times even the several Agents pointing out to the right window, of their own volition.

I was done in little over an hour which, I believe, is a fairly reasonable duration considering I had to access at least 10 different attestations from the Head Clerk to the Section Officer to the Deputy RTO.

Then it hit me!

At a place where the educated vehicle buyers find it commonly convenient to get all papers processed through Agents, a woman’s presence is a thing of the ‘uncommon’. What is more unique is that the woman hasn’t taken recourse to an Agent and hasn’t tried to escape this rigmarole of a visit to the RTO, and hence, I reckon might be a matter of sympathy for all concerned. That’s about my pleasantly surprising experience.

As for the economy bit, I realized this existence of a parallel economy of Agents who’ve come to stay - thriving, efficient, almost professional and businesslike triggered by our more familiar world of vehicle buyers & aspiring car owners (who need their driver’s license) who’re mostly too busy or unwilling to go through this experience, as long as they can pay the odd 100- 200 bucks to the Agent to get it done. For the Agent, it’s a child’s game – being on first-name basis with most of the officials, getting 8 to 10 papers processed at one time across several batches, and all this in a full day’s work. A livelihood for most of them. No wonder there was a huge method despite the visible madness.

No wonder then that Raju kept telling me tales about how (even) he hires an agent every time he needs a renewal of his license, indicating his puzzlement over why someone like me would not do the same. ‘Agent ko sau - dosau rupaiah dedo to karva deta hai’. Not able to overcome his dilemma, he has offered to go pick up the new RC book thinking why a person like me should go back there just to pick it up. And I’ll let him do that, content having done it once, happy in this new awareness and amused that my madness keeps me bumping into new insights and gender awakenings!!