My cravings for food usually come intensely, stay for a few days, ....and for those few days I can do nothing but sink in to give into my basic instincts. Recently, it has been the "The Club" Panini from Jugo Juice. Like a loyalist to myself, I was standing in the small queue when a recent promotion of theirs made me intensely depressed in thinking about how life is a never ending journey of adaptation and learning.
There was this advertisement about "Skinny Peach" smoothie. Suddenly I realized how conspiracies to hammer negative connotations never leave the unfortunate. When the word "skinny" is used as an adjective to sell something, to describe a jeans size in which every self-respecting and sensible woman should feel jubilant to get into, you can't help but rue those moments of blessed childhood as motherly figures (meaning friends' mom and next-door aunties) would wiggle their noses and dwell upon the prospects of you never getting married, because, you were skinny. Indeed, being skinny was like being stupid by being bad in Maths. It bought you only shame and earned others the right to lecture you on the prospects of your future. Being "skinny" was bad, was awful, was darned something you shouldn't be proud of.
And now, when I'm not "skinny" from any remote angle, and am in a remote land away from home, I hear the word day in and day out in such positive connotations. For the love of food and language, why?
Almost makes me snap at anything.
Umm...no...not the kind of "snaps" we are used to understand in India. Snaps in India are cool words for "photos". Nobody says "photos" nowadays, as speaking civil English is passé. Snaps are taken, used, passed around, made understood, and then....when innocently ever used in their sonorous forms, anywhere in this part of the world, are snapped at again.
But no, you are not allowed to "freak out" at conveniently different usage of words and phrases. Of course, in India, freaking out is allowed. And freaks are allowed entry and admittance and enjoyment to their desires in this part of the world too. But you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, then you are a freak. Of course, it's a different story if you don't want to understand. In that case, you should go and "freak out" in any urban nightclub in India.
Looks like, you should be smart enough to understand and recognize these translations as soon as you position yourself in either of the two situations. It suffices to speak urban English and being reflexive to fill in the "smart" shoes back home. Once you are in here (in this freak hell hole), smart shoes get bigger with enough space to bring in intelligence and presence of mind and what not to be stressed about.
Sorry, if up till here you were feeling what's the need to write pure gibberish about very commonplace and obvious things, then I must tell you that this has a purpose. For posterity. For clueless people who shouldn't be losing time in translations they were never taught in school. So yeah, when you are defending yourself, it's extremely useful to start a sentence with "sorry", even though you are least meaning it. Sorry, when used in the beginning of a sentence and followed by a "but" somewhere in the middle of it, explicitly states that the only person who should be sorry, without a doubt, is the listener. Funny....and all these while we were taught that the word is used only to express empathy and thereby, save our face. Turns out, you can start the process of saving your skin and defending your face with the use of "sorry", so that you evade any possibility of being sorry later. Recently, I received a passive-aggressive note that began with "Sorry", though the person never ever appeared sorry, but made me sorry for choosing her in the first place...
Now, even though the lines "It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away" might sound romantic to some, certain words almost takes your mind away and leads utterly confused souls like me, to let it out and make a mention of it so that passerby-s could notice how much importance I give to the significance of transnational connections.
Conclusion: Even with the pervasive McDonaldization of cultures and ways of life, words retain the traces of their embankment. Therefore, let's drink to glory of the words that are positive and empowering in one part of the world, and woes to people who ignore this.
There was this advertisement about "Skinny Peach" smoothie. Suddenly I realized how conspiracies to hammer negative connotations never leave the unfortunate. When the word "skinny" is used as an adjective to sell something, to describe a jeans size in which every self-respecting and sensible woman should feel jubilant to get into, you can't help but rue those moments of blessed childhood as motherly figures (meaning friends' mom and next-door aunties) would wiggle their noses and dwell upon the prospects of you never getting married, because, you were skinny. Indeed, being skinny was like being stupid by being bad in Maths. It bought you only shame and earned others the right to lecture you on the prospects of your future. Being "skinny" was bad, was awful, was darned something you shouldn't be proud of.
And now, when I'm not "skinny" from any remote angle, and am in a remote land away from home, I hear the word day in and day out in such positive connotations. For the love of food and language, why?
Almost makes me snap at anything.
Umm...no...not the kind of "snaps" we are used to understand in India. Snaps in India are cool words for "photos". Nobody says "photos" nowadays, as speaking civil English is passé. Snaps are taken, used, passed around, made understood, and then....when innocently ever used in their sonorous forms, anywhere in this part of the world, are snapped at again.
But no, you are not allowed to "freak out" at conveniently different usage of words and phrases. Of course, in India, freaking out is allowed. And freaks are allowed entry and admittance and enjoyment to their desires in this part of the world too. But you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, then you are a freak. Of course, it's a different story if you don't want to understand. In that case, you should go and "freak out" in any urban nightclub in India.
Looks like, you should be smart enough to understand and recognize these translations as soon as you position yourself in either of the two situations. It suffices to speak urban English and being reflexive to fill in the "smart" shoes back home. Once you are in here (in this freak hell hole), smart shoes get bigger with enough space to bring in intelligence and presence of mind and what not to be stressed about.
Sorry, if up till here you were feeling what's the need to write pure gibberish about very commonplace and obvious things, then I must tell you that this has a purpose. For posterity. For clueless people who shouldn't be losing time in translations they were never taught in school. So yeah, when you are defending yourself, it's extremely useful to start a sentence with "sorry", even though you are least meaning it. Sorry, when used in the beginning of a sentence and followed by a "but" somewhere in the middle of it, explicitly states that the only person who should be sorry, without a doubt, is the listener. Funny....and all these while we were taught that the word is used only to express empathy and thereby, save our face. Turns out, you can start the process of saving your skin and defending your face with the use of "sorry", so that you evade any possibility of being sorry later. Recently, I received a passive-aggressive note that began with "Sorry", though the person never ever appeared sorry, but made me sorry for choosing her in the first place...
Now, even though the lines "It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away" might sound romantic to some, certain words almost takes your mind away and leads utterly confused souls like me, to let it out and make a mention of it so that passerby-s could notice how much importance I give to the significance of transnational connections.
Conclusion: Even with the pervasive McDonaldization of cultures and ways of life, words retain the traces of their embankment. Therefore, let's drink to glory of the words that are positive and empowering in one part of the world, and woes to people who ignore this.
2 comments:
"what's the need to right pure gibberish".... was that right rightly written?
and posterity you say. Groucho says "why should I cares for posterity? what has posterity ever done for me?". And I say, amen. :D
@None
Word stands corrected B-)
And your argument sounds like the "Dum Maro Dum" song--"Duniya ne humko diya kiya, duniya se humne liya kiya,..." Are you taking LSD or what?
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