IWOTY 2020

 

IWOTY 2020

By Gopinath Mavinkurve

As you would all know, each year dictionaries and language societies across the globe have been announcing the Word of the year annually for several years now.  Many of these words often would reflect the mood and times as experienced by the western world and would not really represent us Indians.  I have been suggesting that we ought to have an Indian Word of the Year from a reputed Indian language publisher, but until then have filled in for this need for the past over 10 years now.

This year has been unique.  The mood all over the world has converged onto a single theme, regretfully though, due to the global impact of the Pandemic. The choice has narrowed down as our minds have been wrapped around how to deal with this menace humanity has faced only since the last pandemic in 1919.   Understandably, words like Pandemic [picked by Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com], Lockdown [picked by Collins], Covid-19, Coronavirus, Outbreak, Quarantine, Unlock and such other related words seem to be the obvious front-runners.  Even the newly coined “Covidiot” [picked by Macquarie Dictionary] to describe those not heeding to the requisite behavior in public places such as wearing masks and social distancing has been in the reckoning.   

Oxford Dictionary has called the year 2020 as the “Words of an Unprecedented Year” confessing that selecting a single word would be an impossible task and would not do justice to what we experienced this year.   Shortlists have included words like “Black Lives Matter”, “Megxit” and such other regional favorites albeit, they can only be termed as “also ran” this year.

With this global backdrop, could we think of a theme that captured Indian minds and come up with an Indian Word of the Year 2020  or “IWOTY 2020”?  Indians have grappled with the outbreak just as other countries and these words have been echoing across India even if we do not really know their equivalents in Indian languages.   However, India has experienced hostility of our neighbors at the borders with the ‘dragon’ attempting overtures albeit unsuccessfully.   This has led to a strong urge for national unity to ban Chinese goods and become “AtmaNirbhar”.   Our PM has articulated this to mean being less dependent on other countries and playing a larger global player in trade deals - and not cutting off trade relations with any country.   He has called for us being “Vocal for Local” and urged us to buy Indian goods over imported alternatives for our brethren to prosper.  

“AtmaNirbhar” seems to be the clear choice for being the Indian Word of the Year 2020!

IWOTY 2017

IWOTY 2017

By Gopinath Mavinkurve 

Email: g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com

It is again that time of the year when  Dictionaries and Language watch organisations announce the Word of the Year (WOTY).  The choice is supposed to be reflective of the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the past year, but also possess lasting potential to be a word of socio-cultural significance.

The Oxford Dictionaries WOTY 2017 is “Youthquake”, which it defines as  ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people’.  Although it sounds like a new word to most of us, the word was coined in 1965, when emerging from a post-war period of tumultuous change, Diana Vreeland, editor-in-chief of Vogue, declared the year of the youthquake.

Merriam Webster Dictionary has announced “Feminism” to be the WOTY 2017.  Although the rising influence of youth has been witnessed in India too, and the wave of feminism touched our social lives in our country, would we choose some other word that reflects the ethos, mood and preoccupation of Indians in the year gone by?

“Aadhar” is a worthy contender for the IWOTY 2017.   Although it has been metamorphosing from the “unique identification” card to the “direct benefit transfer instrument” for government payments and later to a perceived “surveillance mechanism” to identify tax evasion, the card now plans to touch the lives of the haves, the have-nots and the minimally-existent non-entities struggling for identities alike.   If one can break the rule here, how about a question as IWOTY 2017 instead?   The question in point being:

“Have you linked your Aadhar?”

Another word that caught the youngster’s attention and perhaps changed  their financial  habits this year is SIP – an acronym for Systematic Investment Plan.   The financial awareness campaigns by the Mutual Fund (MF) industry to inculcate the habit of investing regularly and spreading across good times and bad have resulted in a surge in SIPs. For the first time, the equity markets witnessed domestic fund flows of magnitudes which were hitherto seen only from Foreign Institutional Investors.   Certainly a good habit to have for young earners, if done wisely and consistently over a long period of time.   Needless to say the investment flow into Equity MFs has been a result of the current low interest rates prevailing on fixed income instruments.  SIP hai to sahi hai! 

All through the year, that “Mitron”-evoked announcement made in November last year was the talk of the town, gullies, public gardens, pantries, buses, trains and chai corners across the country – Demonetization or more popularly, “Notebandi” is being talked about with the same wonderment  even to this day.   While, the what-hit-us feeling is yet to wear off for some, one cannot deny that it is the only worthy contender for the IWOTY 2017.

Notebandi it is, i guess.

(Unless you have Aadhar ideas)

This article was published in the Kanara Saraswat Magazine February 2018 issue.

Owlish Stance

Bankers aren’t boring any more.  They discuss whether they are doves or hawks, as the RBI Governor appears to announce the monetary policy.  Would his policy set the cat among pigeons?  The cat: an unexpected hike in rates applied to commercial banks.  And the pigeons:  business heads of industries, who listen to every word the svelte financial official utters in rapt attention.  Would the tweaking mean higher interest costs for the business or a respite, when all else is just too dreary? He has already proved that neither is his institution “caged” nor does he “parrot” the Centre’s lines. He has watched the flight of global money across borders, that sets currency markets aflutter in his previous instance. Now like the watchful eagle, he has set his sight on another soaring bird up in the sky – inflation!  

But who’s listening?  A retired senior may tune in to check whether interest rates would increase as inflation gnaws away at his meager savings, like a rat in FCI’s godown.  Or the home-loan borrower, who cannot live like a cuckoo in a borrowed nest, with the hope that home loan interest rates  do soften.  The rare avid bird-watcher would be away in a wildlife reserve trying to spot a finch or an egret.  He would not  interested in this routine fiscal event.  Neither would most youngsters who would be busy playing “Angry Birds”, “Flappy Birds” or perhaps tweeting.  That’s as close as they get to birds in life.  They know as much about birds as they know about personal finance - Zilch.  As for me, I am easy game for real urban birds, it is their turn to play “Crappy Birds” - and I am their favorite target on Mumbai streets.  

Springing a surprise is what he loves  - no wonder interest rates move like flitting butterflies changing directions in a jiffy.  Anyway, “Neither hawk, nor dove, but we are owls” declared RRR, referring to the stance the RBI  took in announcing the latest monetary policy.  He had been rather brave too.  In a country, where an owl has been bestowed with the attribute of a fool – thanks to the Hindi phrase  “Ullu”, and all who “banao” us well and proper “ullus”.  Like, who in our country do you think knows that the West associates the owl with Wisdom?   Or that the belief dated back to the Greek who believed that owls were wise since the Proto-Corinthian era circa 630 B.C.?  

We in India would not care for such details, as we have been “made ullus” for ages by taxing the interest on bank deposits although the inflation has been higher. The Government has been taxing the money that we did not earn as “income”, but only just protected its value over time!   We are so used to being “made owls” that we won’t even buy term-insurance as they don’t provide any “returns” or because some columnists asks us to be careful about insurance products which have low premiums!

Watch this ad in case you dont believe me.

So eager are we to become ‘ullus’ , that it has already become a widespread national affliction needing eradication.  For this very reason, fly-by-night operators continue to con investors seeking higher than inflation real returns with their ingenious ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes.  There are no legitimate means to beat inflation without losing an arm or a limb (read: invested capital).  Like the magicians who produce doves from thin air, these financial magicians promise to double our hard earned money in double quick time!

 When inflation eats away into our savings, some of us bury our head in the sand like an ostrich. That is the only way to deal with inflation, if we are not to fall for the scam-schemes.   But we must hail the RBI Governor – he is not an ostrich like us, but an owl with his wisdom. He would like to rein in the soaring inflation for us all, so one would truly wish him all the success in this task. Just do that, Guv.  It is time to ground inflation …like Kingfisher… er …. Airlines! Ok, we will not even call it Black Swan event if you do succeed.

(c) Gopinath Mavinkurve

Indianisms - New and Old

Indianisms  – New and Old

By Gopinath Mavinkurve

g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com

Twitter Handle:  @gopinathmm

If there is one word I use at times, not knowing that purists of the English language may consider it incorrect, it is this: “Preponed”.  If pushing the date of an event or appointment is postponed, why pulling one to an earlier date would not be ‘preponed’, one may argue?   The fact remains that “prepone” is a classic example of what is now being termed “Indianism” in English - an Indian way of communication in the English language, albeit incorrect in the global perspective.  The correct word apparently is ‘advanced”.  There are many incorrect words or phrases doing the rounds in our enchanting land where a “cutting tea” means half a cup of the stimulating brew and not tea produced using ‘cutting-edge’ technology by folks who may ask you for your “good name”!

“What’s your good name?” perhaps owes its popularity in the North, where one seeks to know your “Shubh Naam”, nothing less.  Thinking in our local languages and translating it into English is perhaps one of the several reasons for most of the Indianisms.  Seeming to be just fine to most of us, is perhaps what makes the wrong usage of English words or phrases qualify to being termed as ‘Indianisms’. 

“Revert to me at the earliest on this subject” is just another common phrase that seems to be a popular Indian request in emails signoffs.  Language connoisseurs would point out that “Reverting” means “returning to a former state” and perhaps that is not what one is requesting in the communication. “Reply to me…” might be the right thing to say, but hey, we’re Indians aren’t we?  And if you’re not, revert to me please –  or better still, revert back to me please!  We love to add ‘back’, when it is just not necessary.  “Reply back” we say right in front of people – and what we say “behind their backside” could be as hilarious!

So then it is time to act upon this and “do the needful”, when what we mean is “do what is needed”. But what’s wrong with doing the needful, we ask.  We can “Order for a Sandwich” when we need to just “Order a Sandwich”; we happen to “Discuss about corruption” when we ought to just “Discuss corruption”, because ‘discuss’ means ‘talk about’, doesn’t it?  In a country where PAN is PAN Number, it ought to be perfectly fine.

We insist on someone being our “real brother” to stress that he is not a “cousin brother”.  Elsewhere ‘brother’ and ‘cousin’ would do just fine.  Not in our land, where we have coined the word “Co-brother”, which happens to be just two unrelated gentlemen married to sisters.  Real sisters, of course! But just in case the alliance is yet to happen, one could be a “would-be co-brother”, perhaps?!  But at the marriage ceremony, one is certain to have a “photo-take-outing session” with the real and not-so-real brothers and sisters.   We are also said to be “out of station”, but we’re never out of ideas for newer and funnier Indianisms.  For us, ‘sleep comes’, ‘rain falls’ ‘problem-became’ and ‘what-all happens’ you’ll never imagine!

I could come up with many more Indianisms if I ‘think hardly’. What I am ‘sure about’, though is that this trend has begun many “years back” – not “years ago” as it ought to.  One never realized when even the press reporters seem to be ok with ‘years back’ these days.  Gone are the days when a stickler of a teacher would correct us saying sternly, “‘Ago’ NOT ‘Back’.”, I guess.

Several years ‘back’…er… ago, when I was just a child in early school, I seriously believed that the word “Zaa” existed in the English language. I had learnt it from my teacher only, No?  “2, 2,  ZAA 4 | 2, 3, ZAA 6|…..” . That’s how the mathematical tables went...  So one was not surprised with the Bollywood song “One Two Kaa Four” - just another mathematical expression perhaps ‘KAA’ was just a higher multiplier at play, one thought?  Until later in life, one learnt with shock, that what teacher taught us was “2 2s are 4/ 2 3s are 6”..!  Schooling for us was more about “learning by-heart” or in some parts of our country, “by-hearting” – an expression better understood by the rest of the world by the expression “learning by rote”.

In India, where “anything goes” [Sab chalta hai], we keep seeing such Indianisms around us “with our own eyes” and listen “with our own ears”, so if you do come across any interesting ones going around, please write in to me at my email id “today only”, “without fail”. But if I don’t revert to you, don’t “eat my head”!  By the way, Fun came, no?

© Gopinath Mavinkurve 2014

   

IWOTY 2013

Gopinath Mavinkurve

g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com

Towards the end of each year, it has become a popular practice that is been put in place in recent times that western lexicographers and ‘language watch’ organizations like the Oxford University Press (OUP), Merriam Webster Dictionary, Global Language Monitor and the American Dialect Society, do announce their chosen “Word Of The Year” (WOTY).

As a keen observer of language trends, one has been keeping an eye on the announcements in the last decade or so.  While some of the WOTYs  announced by the have taken me by surprise, some others have been just what one expected would make it to the winning post.  The process of choosing the coveted word from among contenders for the honour appears to be methodic and even participatory democratic.  Contenders vying to be the WOTYs are also put up by some language societies on their websites for a few weeks inviting the public at large to vote for their choice for the top slot, while some relying on language experts on their staff rolls to select the winner.

For example, the WOTY 2013announced by Oxford Dictionaries is “Selfie”,a term for clicking a picture of oneself or oneself with someone you met, acommon practice due to the front-and-rear cameras provided in modernsmartphones.   More about the method of choosing the word in this link here.  The runners-up can be found in this link here. Oxford had announced “Omnishambles” asthe WOTY 2012, a state of shambles all over, reflective of the financial andpolitical scene, from which the globe struggles to recover even to this day!

Merriam Webster has declared “science” as their choice for the WOTY 2013.  The method employed has been the words that users of their online dictionary looked up on their website.  More about it inthe link here. 

Global Language Monitor has announced “404” as the WOTY 2013 and “Toxic Politics” as the Phrase of the Year 2013. Details in this link. 

The American Dialect Society has yet to chose their WOTY 2013. It had chosen “hashtag” as their WOTY 2012.  Hashtag is a ‘#’ placed before a word or phrase on Twitter (and now FB too!) which sorts out tweets by clicking on the hashtag.

From the above, it is obvious that words that have made it are either newly coined ones to reflect the changing times or at times, existing ones that have become popular again due to current events.  In any case, they have caught the imagination of the public at large and have made it to the popular charts in their years of reckoning.  Clearly one finds that while the WOTYs announced do reflect the socio-economic realities of the western world, they do not necessarily reflect the times and moods of people of India.

It is with this fact in mind that one wonders why cannot we have our own Indian Language watch organization that puts up some contenders for the Indian Word Of The Year (IWOTY) for us to select from?  So when I posed this question on my blog a few years ago, my friends and ardent blog followers suggested me to do this each year until some reputed organization picks up the idea on a larger national scale.

Some of the past potential IWOTYs that have featured in my blog in the past few years:

Kolaveri – Outrage in our contemporary word that featured in the “Kolaveri Di” a song by Dhanush that became viral in 2012.  Besides the ‘heart-breaking’ rage from his prospective life partner, that earned it the popularity it deserved,  the apparent outrage on social media circuits about the state of national affairs.

Anna / Annagiri – Team Anna’s high-pitch campaign for a  Lok Pal Bill seeking trial of corruption at top level and several other measures found news channels beaming the fast-unto-death threats as a tool of modern satyagraha being termed as “Annagiri”.   Although not everyone agreed that a Lok Pal Bill would be a panacea for all our political ills, it gained support merely due to the widespread misuse of the power vested in our political leaders and one agreed that they ought to be independently investigated without political interference of their bosses.

Lok Pal – “Lok Pal” had became a popular term earning a mention in various published articles consequent to the campaigns of Team Anna.

Scamayana – Scams in India had grown to epic proportions, which prompted Indians to expect the chronicling of the current scams which could be called “Scamayana” for future generations to refer to and take note of. An era that would better be done with and dusted, though.

Below are some of the contenders that could don the “IWOTY 2013” cap this year.  Readers may suggest more worthy contenders for IWOTY to my email id g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com

Modi-fication – The anointment of Modi as the PM candidate for the BJP has brought prospects of the Modi-fication of the Nation – a term used to imply that the progress of Gujarat model and the ideas of an Industry-friendly Chief Minister could well be spread across the nation with this development.  Although this is an existing word suggesting change, what makes it a pun is the prospective PM candidates name itself!  The nation awaits the results of this announcement with bated breath, but change seems to be what most Indians want and some kind of change is inevitable!

Aam Aadmi – The word, Hindi for common man, is back in the fray with renewed vigour ever since the Aam Aadmi Party clinched a sizeable number of seats in the Delhi State elections, albeit falling short of being called a ”clean-sweep of the new broom”.  The common man himself is back in the reckoning. The power of the mainstream media, the impact of the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the manner in which the common man’s opinion is becoming increasingly important is apparent.  The word is gaining prominence for all these factors as it is for this fledgling political party which has just tasted its first success.

Laal Batti – The Red Beacon on cars signifying that the persons travelling are “privileged” persons bestowed with special privileges at public places.  It is becoming a common feature to find reports in the news media about the kith and kin of the “High-and-Mighty” to claim special treatment at Toll Nakas, Customs clearance gates and such other public amenities.   Besides being misused by others who are not even remotely related to the public servants, who are currently eligible for this treatment, it is now in question whether such preferential and discriminatory treatment should be even be made to those in power? Lal Batti is not just about the Red Beacon on the car, more about all special privileges. Arvind Kejriwal has refused Z-Category Security, A bungalow in New Delhi  and of course any other privilege that could be called a “Laal-Batti” treatment and shown exemplary leadership. But will other Mantris follow his example?  Giving up the Laal-Batti status is not such an easy thing to do, apparently!   

Siballed –  Social Media users found themselves in a tight spot while commenting or ‘liking’ posts that usually showed the ruling party or those at the helm in bad light.  Although freedom of speech has been largely enjoyed by Indians in mainstream and other media, there was a move by Kapil Sibal to amend Section 66A of the Information Technology Act to punish anyone posting anything “offensive” on the internet or social media sites like Twitter or FB  and removing “offensive content” forthwith!  Users who found some of their posts struck down or hauled up by the police were said to have been “Siballed”.

Mango Man – This comical translation of the ‘Aam Aadmi’ is a contender by itself. The term is widely in use in social media circles, playing upon “Aam” being a Hindi pun meaning both common and mango!  This term also receives favour by Yours Truly, due to the Mango-connection that my surname bears:

Mavinkurve means “Mango Basket” in Kannada, apparently. 

That makes me the “Original Mango Man”, doesn’t it?

Book Review - "The Man Who Will Not Bribe"

The Man who will not bribe   By Veeresh Malik

A true account of the travails of an upright founder of an educational institute of global standards built on strong foundations of ethics

Reviewed by Gopinath Mavinkurve 

What happens when a bright IIT-Delhi (1981) and IIM-Ahm (1983) executive chucks his plush job with an MNC to pursue his dream of setting up an educational institute offering global standards and built on the principles of ethics?  Lots could have happened, but when it is Dr. Varun Arya, the Director of Aravali Institute of Management (AIM), who takes on the challenges thrown at him with the undaunted determination, the answer is just this: Success at a steep cost!

Principles of ethics, dear readers, for Varun Arya means no bribes will be paid whatsoever - and no unethical practices to be adopted in his institute while seeking to excel in the field of providing higher education conforming to global standards! So you think that wouldn’t take his dreams anywhere, right?  Wrong!  Although the challenges thrown meant being falsely framed charges, turning down approval requests, refusing land use changes, applying unfair stipulations over competitors and what-have-you, the dogged pursuit of the applicant institute to get the approvals without paying a single rupee bribe is something one has got to read- unbelievable as it may seem!

One is much too familiar with the bureaucratic red-tape all designed to trap bribe-payers into loosening the purse-strings to  get their much-needed approvals despite not being compliant with the regulatory conditions - or only just to speed up the process.   It happens everywhere, you may say.  One just gets around these hurdles and gets going, one may believe – but for Varun it was not “his way” of going about setting up an institute of learning!  His principles were far too important to him – and what’s more, the entire teaching faculty and his entire team backed him to the hilt!  Naturally, the hurdle race got tough – but certainly not un-surmountable.

One tool that he used to fight the menace of ‘demanding’ government officials was the Right to Information Act (RTI).  Several RTI applications were filed time and again to expose the atrocities of the bureaucracy and the victimization of the institute vis-à-vis the other institutes.  However, inspite of all these efforts, it is disheartening to note how the entire staff of the institute had to resort to a fast-unto-death to get their rightful approvals!

Do read the sordid saga of the struggles that the institute's founder had to go through and the wonders that they produced despite all the odds faced by them in this ebook available on AmazonKindle in this link here.

Veeresh Malik, a journalist and activist, who had earlier lent support to the institute in respect of the filing of RTI applications “assembles the book”(in his own words).  A curator of the book, would perhaps be a better word for his role, as he weaves together several emails, letters, speeches and the memories of the events that occur in the life of the protagonist, the real life hero, Dr. Varun Arya - The Man Who Will Not Bribe.

May a thousand Varun Aryas bloom!

Special Effort for Special Kids

Text of my article published in "Beyond Money" column of the Moneylife Magazine is reproduced below:

An educationist and social activist started a mission to help people overcome poverty through education when she was in her 80s. Gopinath Mavinkurve writes about this gritty effort

Rukmabai Tallur, fondly known as ‘ Rukmakka’, embarked on a mission on India’s Republic Day, in 1986. She decided to set up Punyatama Prabhakar Sharma Seva Mandal (PPSSM) in the memory of her brother, a freedom fighter and social activist, who had devoted his entire life to helping the poor. Rukmakka was an activist herself, in the Gandhian tradition. She always wore khadi, led an austere life devoted to education and staunchly believed that spreading literacy would not only help improve the lives of the underprivileged, but also give them respect in society. Since 1940, she had been teaching Hindi at Mumbai’s Seva Sadan in the belief that knowledge of the rashtrabhasha would aid our freedom struggle.

PPSSM was started with 13 members who pooled Rs500 each. Rukmakka herself collected a corpus of Rs2 lakh in the very first year. Although an octogenarian when she established the trust, she went door-to-
door collecting funds, clothes, books and uniforms. Even on her 100th birthday (on 8 January 2005), she donated the cash gifts that she received to PPSSM, to help tribal children with special needs. In April 2005, Rukmakka passed away and Shitala Pandit took up her dream project—to construct a residential school for special children.

Ms Pandit had to overcome several obstacles, including rising costs. Two residential schools for the hearing-impaired and mentally-challenged underprivileged children began operations in dilapidated old premises on 7 October 2006. Construction of the school at Igatpuri (Maharashtra), began in February 2007 even before the entire funding was in place. Several donors pitched in and the school was formally inaugurated in July 2009. Today, they have 100 students and a range of facilities including a library and nursery, and rooms for first-aid, physiotherapy, IQ testing, specialised speech therapy and computers.

Interestingly, despite getting an ‘A Grade’ from Maharashtra’s Social Welfare Department, special schools, like the PPSSM’s, do not receive government aid. The monthly expenses of this residential school, including food, clothing, medicines and maintenance for over 100 special students aggregate over Rs2 lakh. PPSSM is funding the entire expenditure from the interest earned on its corpus. The teachers also get a nominal honorarium, instead of a salary. Naturally, PPSSM is constantly striving to increase the corpus to meet rising costs and needs.

What keeps the effort of PPSSM’s committed teachers alive is the fruit of this dedication. In 2012, Nilesh Navle scored 86% in the school leaving examinations and joined an ITI where he stood second amongst normal students. In 2013, Vijay Ghorpade scored 69% in his SSLC examination and went on to obtain an electrical engineering diploma.
Dhanashree Pawar scored 71% and chose to specialise in fashion designing. Several students have also won prizes in inter-school competitions. These achievements are published on PPSSM’s website. The teachers, including the principal, Naval Sonar, have also received well-deserved honours and felicitations.

PPSSM hopes to be able to adopt many more children and help shape their future through education. It is working to build an independent corpus for three separate schemes, so that the work can be sustained with the interest earned. The Shikshan Prabandh, at Rs5,000 per student, takes care of uniforms, books and stationery for one child per year. Anna Prabandh, covers the food expenses for one child for an entire year at Rs6,000; and Shikshak Nidhi, at Rs5,000, supports the corpus from which honorarium is paid to teachers.

PPSSM has not only given these differently-abled children the chance to become self-sufficient but helped make their dreams come true. Donations to PPSSM are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income-tax Act.

PPSSM
Shitala Pandit
9-11/12, Saraswat Colony,
Santa Cruz (West),
Mumbai 400 054
Tel 022 2660 1837
E-mail punyatma8@gmail.com.
www.punyatma.org

Weblink to the original article:

http://www.moneylife.in/article/special-effort-for-special-kids/34384.html