The Interest of the Day: Lexicographers

That is what I am searching on today. Random searches led by curiosity and they led to a few nuggets of thought:

1. I reread about 'The Whole Earth Catalogue.' I identified with the vision of the man who had a simple idea: to create a single platform for any man seeking for knowledge on anything on this earth. It inspired Steve Jobs as a child, and decades later, he talked about it in his famous commencement address at the Stanford University that so inspires me. It's marvelous- how the light of inspiration ideas spreads.

2. I searched for Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha. I wanted to know what had motivated him to compile the 'Mahaan Kosh'- till date the only encyclopedia of Punjabi. I read that he was a great scholar, and that all his knowledge was self-amassed, that he had had no formal learning. And, I read that he spent 15 years researching for the 'Mahaan Kosh.' A thought came to me- he put in so much hard work, and he is revered for that too, but only within the boundaries of the Punjabi speaking community. Had he done the same amount of work in a more 'economically powerful' language, such as English, his fame would have spread so much wider.

I have had the same thought regarding Waris Shah before. His 'Heer' is the soul of the Punjabi literature. When people have to convey his stature in Punjab to an outsider, they say, 'He is the Shakespeare of Punjabi.' But no one will face the need to introduce Shakespeare as 'the Waris Shah of English.'

Both the men were equally talented, both were geniuses with words, both had great imagination. Both are revered as the grand old men of their respective languages.

The only reason why one is so far ahead of the other in a casually compiled 'Who's Who' list is that one's language is more powerful than the other.

What makes a language powerful or weak is the political power of those who speak it. The reason why English is ascendant over French, German, and Punjabi (which lags quite far behind in this list) is that it had the patronage of the UK and the USA.

I've been a passionate proponent of 'Punjabi Bachao' efforts. But one thing that I have come to understand is that people cannot be made to speak Punjabi with mere sentimentality, by telling them that it is their mother-tongue and so they must not forget it. Rather, I think, people will speak Punjabi if it makes practical (read 'Economic') sense to do so. That is the reason why Punjabi households strive to speak in English today.

If Shakespeare's ghost comes visiting

I am extremely interested in the writers who were not recognized during their lifetimes but later on grew into literary phenomena, lauded as the chief architects of a whole new style of writing or some similarly huge epithets.

I was just reading about Herman Melville on wikipedia. He had the same story. So does Scott Fitzgerald and our dear Mr Shakespeare. Shakespeare died as a respected poet and playwright, but just that. He was considered 'one among the many' such talented writers. His reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century!

If Shakespeare's ghost came visiting today, he would actually be quite surprised. The Grand Old Man of English? "Is it me they are talking about?" He will be quite shocked first, then thrilled with the realization, will do a little hee-hoo by himself. But after that will come the thought- What difference does it make now? They may say anything now but that will not undo the struggles I had to do in my lifetime, which I would have not have had to, had they recognized me then. But they did not, and that is what matters. Saying so, the ghost will quietly leave, thinking sadly of what could have been...

Sonnet to my Mother

Most near, most dear, most loved, and most far,
Under the huge window where I often found her
Sitting as huge as Asia, seismic with laughter,
Gin and chicken helpless in her Irish hand,
Irresistible as Rabelais but most tender for
The lame dogs and hurt birds that surround her,—
She is a procession no one can follow after
But be like a little dog following a brass band.
She will not glance up at the bomber or condescend
To drop her gin and scuttle to a cellar,
But lean on the mahogany table like a mountain
Whom only faith can move, and so I send
O all her faith and all my love to tell her
That she will move from mourning into morning.


George Baker

I did a google search on the word 'seismic' to see any innovative usage of the word, and that was how I came to this poem. I loved the phrases- 'seismic laughter', 'scuttle to a cellar', 'sitting as huge as Asia'...in general, the poem evoked a wonderful imagery.

Stumbled upon JRR Tolkien

I was doing the word lists, and did a google search for the word 'Niggle'. That is how I came to JRR Tolkein's story 'Leaf by Niggle.'

Reading about it, my interest was suddenly aroused to see how Tolkien had built his enormous vocabulary and how he propagated it.

Well, there were these lines that I wanted to copy paste here for future reference:

"Mum is not the word for Roverandom: this book can be enjoyed by anyone who loves The Hobbit, from the most abstruse Tolkien scholar to intelligent children of perhaps age 8 or 10. The vocabulary is steep, but as the editors note, Tolkien insisted that children learn new words by reading ones they do not already know. Anyone curious about the allusions can look them up in the notes, but they are not marked in the text and are no more necessary than would be notes to Farmer"

Source: http://www.mythsoc.org/roverrev.html

A good read in teh first half: http://www.calvin.edu/minds/vol02/issue04/cengbers.php

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"A myth or a fairy story can convey love and hate, selfishness and self-sacrifice, loyalty and betrayal, good and evil -- all of which are metaphysical realities, that is, true, even if conveyed in a mythological or fairyland setting."

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Tolkien realized that when you learn a language, you don't just learn auditory symbols, you also learn about the history, culture, and values of the society that speaks that language. Therefore he came up with a "world" history and a society where his invented languages could have evolved.

Curtain-Raiser: The Half-M

Day after day is passing, it's now a week since I came back home, and I've not yet blogged anything about it-not about the last week in Bangalore, the last day at Infy, the farewell, the train-journey-all-alone, the coming back, the days here- despite intending to, so seriously. It's that same excuse- didn't find the time.

Even now, that is not what I came here for (though I will write about it all- soon!)

Today, I ran. After many, many weeks. And, Mohali saw me run a distance of 10 km for the first time. Last year, when I used to go for walks at the local Rose Garden, I could do no more than 3 rounds (roughly 1 mile) of jogging. Today, I did not stop/walk even once. I felt so proud!

Running is one legacy I will always fondly attribute to Bangalore. It let me run, gave me so many opportunities to. I was a part of the 'Runners for Life' mailgroup. And, I ran with the 'Hash House Harriers.' There, I met people older than my father, some almost as old as my grandmother, coming for their sunday run. It was a wholly new lifestyle, a new attitude that I was exposed to. There, I met a sprightly lady, with silver hair, dressed in a full cyclists' gear. She assembled her cycle, and as we ran, she cycled past. I told her that she is the kind of old lady I want to be, and she expressed mock objection to being called old.

Bangalore gave me the confidence that it'll never be too late to start running. I started running.

My first goal was the Sunfeast 10 km run, and that I ran on May 18, 2008.

The next target was to run the Half Marathon in the Bangalore Marathon scheduled for Sep.

But then I decided to resign, and so my Half-M goal shifted to the Delhi Half Marathon, planned for November.

From today, I officially start the training for the Half-M.

That is what I had come to the blog for :-)

The Last Day Mail at Infosys

As I Bow Out


In the world of words

I had wanted to go

When college ended a year ago

Words make me glow

I like to plough

Them through and sow

In ideas; when they grow,

Aglow in beauty, so

Much pride I feel in me.

I feel so rich. I glint in glee.



The appointment letter led me though

To this job and I do know

That to it there’s much I owe

It let me out of my burrow

To soar. It gave me wings to grow

And flew me in to a metro.

I thank you, dear team, also

As to the words’ world I go. I bow.