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.