Here I am sweating it out in my apartment because apparently the designers thought that air conditioning is an indestructible creation and did not deem it fit to fit a measly ceiling fan in my room. What is going through my mind is the choicest of self composed creations of words that many of my dear friends would not expose their kids to. It brings me to a trip down memory lane when the guy who would not even use a simple little word like sala (apparently it means your brother-in-law in Hindi, whoever made it to be a voice of frustration must have been high at that moment along with the population who imbibed it in our language as a ‘bad’ word) could come up with such bombastic creations now.
It must have started during the ragging period (I am not sure if I am supposed to mention ‘ragging’ in a public forum, lest I start a chain reaction of comments condemning such act and how we can be better citizens by treating our womenfolk better which I believe you should, since a gentleman is always good to the ladies and chivalry should never be dead even if some people are hell bent on killing it, how we should change our country by choosing the right government and criticize the rest by prying into the private lives, educational qualifications, citizenship and personal expenses of our dear candidates who at least jumps into the field unlike the warriors who believe facebook is the new pillar of democracy, and every other social issue under the sun). My dear seniors used to hold competitions to see who can come up with the most innovative and bombastic expletives. The time frame ended, enmities dusted aside, yet the words etched itself in my daily vocabulary. It became difficult to go back home and speak a single ‘clean’ sentence.
The beauty about it is these expletives have so ingrained themselves in our daily vocabulary that we tend to use them without actually meaning to, i.e. the emotions from these strong words have drained out. Anatomical references, mention of basic living activities which we consider taboo in spite of the entire population of the earth engaging in it, and other innovative juxtaposition of words simply flow in our conversation with close friends and we tend to ignore the actual meaning rendered by them. Maybe this was not what our great literary greats must have fathomed while composing classics but unfortunately this is what the world has come to.
A friendly piece of advice-when words hurt you, either assume that the person used it as a result of force of habit rather than to convey it’s actual meaning, and if the intention is to hurt, you hold the higher moral ground and have already won the mental battle of wits.