A note to my students / 04 October 2013

Galileo Galilei, the father of observational astronomy

Every one of my students says “sorry” if they make a mistake while speaking English. Every one of us Indians are embarrassed if we speak incorrect English. But has anyone come across an American, Englishman, or Australian who is ashamed because he/she can’t speak perfect Hindi or Tamil?

It is time we threw this colonial baggage into a dustbin and accepted English for what it was. For historical reasons, English has become the link language of the world. Chinese aircraft pilots overflying Siberia communicate with Russian air-traffic controllers in English. To make a living in the twenty-first century, you must learn some English. But all that most people need is to follow written and spoken English and express themselves clearly in the language.

Therefore, there is nothing wrong if we commit mistakes in English, but we must try to write and speak as accurately and beautifully as we can. There are several compelling reasons why we must.

Firstly, if you are doing higher studies, it is imperative that you shape out your thoughts in clear and compact language.

Secondly, if you transact business with overseas clients, you should be polite and impressive. And unless you have a good command of English, you are unlikely to impress anyone.

Thirdly, anything worth doing is worth doing well.

I always ask my students to do two things to improve their language skills: regularly listen to and read good English, preferably a newspaper. But English papers published from India often contain incorrect English. It’s quite possible that you’ll pick up wrong language from newspapers. Here are a few tips on reading newspapers.

Firstly, choose the newspaper carefully. The Hindu and the Indian Express are two papers that I recommend without reservations. And I am sure there are others. For example, my friend Randeep Wadhera, who writes brilliant English, contributes to the Tribune.

Secondly, in all newspapers, the language is usually good on the front page and the editorial pages. But on other pages and particularly in the supplements, the language is often terrible.

An example 

Here is something I picked up from the Education Supplement of the Deccan Herald yesterday. A reader wrote: “I am studying in Class XII and am aspiring to become an astrophysicist. I would like to know which are the government institutes offering this course and how to apply. … How many percent of marks should I have to get a seat in government institutions?”

Let’s look at the sentences individually.

1. “I AM STUDYING IN CLASS XII AND I AM ASPIRING TO BECOME AN ASTROPHYSICIST.”

“I am studying in Class XII” is fine, but in the second part of the sentence, where the verb is “aspire”, we have a problem.

Verbs like aspire, know, believe, prefer, like, etc. are called state verbs or stative verbs. They do not talk about an activity, but about a state of your mind.

The verbs that talk about the existence or state of something too are state verbs. For example the verbs in the following sentences: “There ARE many excellent universities in India.” And: “Astrophysics IS a difficult subject.”

Another group of state verbs are the sensory verbs like feel, touch, etc.

In English, we do not normally use state verbs in continuous or progressive tenses. For example you do not say: “I am believing god is existing. X” You say: “I believe god exists.”

Therefore, you can say: “I am studying in Class XII and I aspire to become an astrophysicist.”

But remember, there are always excptions to rules. For example: McDonald’s slogan “I'm loving it!”

***

2. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHICH ARE THE GOVERNMENT INSTITUTES OFFERING THIS COURSE AND HOW TO APPLY.

From the point of view of grammar, this is not a question, but a statement. The correct sentence can be – “I would like to know which government institutes are offering this course and how to apply.”

Better: “I would like to know which government institutes offer this course and how to apply.”

***

3. “HOW MANY PERCENT OF MARKS SHOULD I HAVE TO GET A SEAT IN GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS?”

This sentence can be rewritten in many ways. Here is one. “What percentage of marks will I need to get a seat in government institutions?”

Cheers.

Can India be redeemed?

If the ordinance to protect convicted legislators becomes law, the men who raped and killed Nirbhaya in Delhi can theoretically become your MP or MLA one day. It’s a shame that a government can even contemplate such a law. 

I think the thieves in the UPA in general, and the Congress Party in particular, realised soon after 2008 that they would lose the elections in 2014, and decided to make hay while the sun shines. Development and governance were thrown into trash cans and ministers and their cronies joined a gold rush. A series of mega-scams followed. Two-G, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Housing, Robert Wadhera, Bellary, Coal, Sharda Chit Fund, … we Indians can suffix any goddamned noun with “scam”. There have certainly been many more, the august names I have mentioned are just the peaks. India is blessed with two great mountain ranges of the world, the Himalayas in the north and Corruption throughout its length and breath. Can we ever move the second mountain?

It was a welcome relief to read in today’s papers that Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince of the Gandhi Dynasty, says this ordinance should be torn up. Given the power structure in Congress, it will be. But it raises a question: is this a stage-managed show to propel the young scion into the election battles? Or is this a genuine conflict between the old and the new, the relatively uncorrupted and veteran criminals seeped in sleaze?

We don’t know the answer, at least as yet. But I have always thought that Mr Rahul Gandhi is a well-meaning idiot. I apologise for using the epithet in the public domain, but at times, you cannot make a point if you are politically correct. The point I am trying to make is, in general, I would rather vote for an honest fool than a brilliant crook. But isn’t “honest politician” an oxymoron, like India-made-foreign-liquor?

I do believe everything isn’t lost. For every thief, most political parties also have some honest leaders. Some of them are capable persons too. One of them happened to be my neighbour once. Let me say a few words about him.

In the early 1990s, a multiple-time chief minister of Kerala, Mr AK Antony lived in a tiny two-storey house which his wife, a bank employee, had built in Thiruvananthapuram. I used to cross his house every day. There were a few sleepy policemen, but no picket, no crowd of favour seekers or hangers-on in front of his house. Once, when Antony was the CM, the state government employees went on a continuous strike. The babus frothed in the mouth shouting slogans in front of the state secretariat, but the no-nonsense CM remained cool. His only point, you-don’t-work-so-it-doesn’t-matter-whether-you-are-in-office-or-outside, turned out to be correct. After 40 days or so, the employees returned to office, tail sadly limping between legs.

Is it too late to redeem the situation in our country? Let’s hope not. In 2014, we can and we must vote for the most honest or the least corrupt politician on the rogues’ list, irrespective of their political affiliation. But what if every one of the vote seekers is a big crook?

Well, the Supreme Court’s verdict yesterday, in which the Election Commission was instructed to add a “None of the above (NOTA)” option on voting machines / ballot papers, shows the way. The people of India must prevent the present rogue government bringing in another law to overturn this ruling! However, even if we presume this ruling will not be challenged by politicians, there is still a glitch.

The honourable Supreme Court hasn’t said what will happen if Mr NOTA wins an election!

Kolkata, 28 September 2013

Goddess of Letters

Michael Madhusudan Dutta

What treasures abound

In your boundless universe,

Know only those,

Who have embraced the feet

Of the Goddess of Letters.

The original verse in Bangla by is:

Kato je aishwarya tabo e bhabo mandole

Sei jane, banee pado dhare je mastake

Translated on 19 July 2013 at Kolkata

An environmentalist or an enemy of the people?

Santanu Dasgupta


One evening while taking a stroll, I came upon a daab or tender-coconut seller. He was winding up his business for the day. Seeing so many tender coconuts, I felt thirsty and he agreed to cut open the last one for the day. I sipped it with the straw he gave me and continued on my stroll.

About ten minutes later I walked back the same way and saw the daab seller picking up straws that lay strewn all over the place.

‘Now, that’s a man who loves his environment’, I murmured to myself. I felt guilty too, because just a few minutes ago, I had carelessly thrown away my used straw.  ‘He deserves my compliments’, I thought, and walked towards him.

But as I came closer I saw him packing all the used straws that he had picked up from the street back into the packet that contained the unused (?) ones. The street was clean of all plastic straws.

Now what do I take from this incident? Is the daab-seller guilty of endangering public health? Yes.

Is he to be admired for his love for Nature? Yes.

I can see a few eyebrows being raised at this point. So, for the sake of argument, look at what he is doing for our ecosystem: he clears up the plastic waste, recycles it so that more plastic need not be produced. Of course, he does all this at the cost of public health. But if we look at thinks from his perspective, he does not think maintaining hygiene as his priority or responsibility.

I walked back home confused.