Sunday, March 25, 2012

RBI Sridhar writes...


Dear All
 
Hope you would appreciate and enjoy but in turn we have to use the language for daily routine!
------------
 
The English Plural
according to ....


We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes;
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese;
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. 

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen ?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet ?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth ? 


Then one may be that, & three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose;
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother & also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his & him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis & shim ! 

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England. 

We take English for granted,
but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly,
boxing rings are square;
A guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
Why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce & hammers don't ham ? 

Doesn't it seem crazy that ...
you can make amends but not one amend ?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends ...
and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it ? 

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught ?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
what does a humanitarian eat ?

Sometimes I think all people who speak English
Should be in an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play,
and play at a recital ? 

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship ...
We have noses that run & feet that smell;
We park in a driveway & drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance & a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man & a wise guy are opposites ? 

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down;
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
& in which an alarm goes off by going on. 

And in closing ....
If Father is Pop ....
how come Mother's not Mop ? ? ? ?


Dear All

We are finding pearls of different value as our network spreads broader and broader. If we take stock of our members, I think it should have crossed more than 100 (may I have the exact number of Members for our TOSA from our statisticians?). Every one is different in one way or the other and when we all join , with the ideas, knowledge and information, we could definitely make an essence of our TDR's glory. Music,Dance, art, culture, literature, writing skill, to quote some. Information available from each corner is of immense use to our treasure of knowledge of our Thalainagaram.  My suggestion is that we should gather from our TDR Times blog, the writings and make a small booklet titled Down the Memory Lanes of  Thiruvidaimarudur and release the same at our next Sangamam. Deeper we think and make our ideas to drive and dive into the sea of knowledge, we could bring out many pearls. All this require dedication, devotion and above all duty bound approach. Many intellectuals in and around us - alas we find them after a long search through our net work of TDR Sangamam and TDR Times. Like a magnet that attracts the iron particle, the magnet of TDR/TOSA gets more power now to attract our friends. Another suggestion I could make is to get hold of a prominent NGO nearer to our Tiruvidaimarudur and we could join them as a support in bringing out a better life to the genuine and sincere people in and around our Thalainagaram. As I had suggested earlier, running of a Library with books of interest in a small place near the main bazar would be of immense help to people there. We should also find out local talents and award the talent in a way to help. We could even go to some of the schools nearby - elementary schools/high schools besides our own school and arrange motivational talk to the students behind the banner of TOSA.  During Diwali or Pongal we could distribute sweets to a remote village where the people are really below the poverty line.  We could collect some money and go to a very small school and distribute bags, foot wear and note books.  There are many ways to display our humane approach.

When I sit in a corner and when the thoughts go back to my school days, I realise the rough road of my life where from I had come out of the ebbing waves of rough sea of life with HIS grace and I used to wonder how I used to get a moment of happiness when I am given a small peanut cake (kadalai mittai). What a great happiness to see one rupee coin or a currency note, to visit Kumbakonam and have a plate of idly in a hotel, to enjoy the bite of biscuit - no doubt one has to merge into these moments and bring out our emotion. This itself a great experiment to relish and cherish the memories.

Fistful of rice, a rare commodity those days for a normal poor brahmin family and with this struggle, we have to thank our parents and teachers who gave us the courage to over come them with dignity and decency. Discipline they had taught those days, no school is capable of bringing out the essence today. 

Grammer taught those days is a technique where the style is missing today. Sentences without a mistake is rare to find these days. Simple english taught so perfectly with proper spelling is great achievement in those days of method of teaching.

Maths, both general and composite, were taught so easily in a way to go into the deep root of knowledge and we were fortunate that we could manage with that knowledge to compete in the present corporate worlds. Complicated words rule the present corporate world without knowing the basics. Communication suffers without understanding the basics of communication. Interpretations suffer without knowing the understanding capability. Modulation, moderation are absent and the punctuation marks missing to misunderstand the real meaning. Expressions are artificial but impressions are created in an imaginary manner. Sincerity takes a back seat to approach any problem.  One should realise that no one can make a lock without a key thus giving the meaning that without a solution no problem could arise and that is the beauty of the LORD. Though life is simple, we make it complicated by our pride possession of our sixth sense where analysis takes place for unwanted things.

Let us all come together and resolve our problems by mutual consolation and counseling and thus TOSA provides a platform to get a peace of mind by opening up our mail box every Sunday. Let us not stop this practice and each and every one going through our TDR Times should come out with at least one article every week and this will pave way to at least sit before a computer for half an hour every Sunday with a relaxed mood of going back to our School days. This will not only energise us but synergise!

Come one Come all Come together my dear TDRites!

Sincerely,
R.Sridharan
No Man is rich enough in this world to buy back his past!
HELP EVER
HURT NEVER
-- 

2 comments:

  1. frmSvenkataraman.UR SUGG are valid in letter and spirit.I feel all TOSA members should put their efforts to turn ur dream into reality.as regards LIBRARY, u know one KILAI NOOLAGAM was functioning during 1960s. now i do not know where it has taken its travel.I feel v should take up with aothrities including local MLA.Think it over. with Regards

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