Notes To My Child

Don't lose:

* your curiosity and sense of wonder. Never hesitate to question Why or to ask Why not!

* your openness and ability to accept new things. This is what I thought, but it could work that way too and, you know what, it might actually be better that way.

* your lack of inhibition and shame. Don't be afraid to try out whatever's on your mind. People might think it's silly but hey, it's just them, who cares!

You'll be better off if you get rid of:

* Your naivete and innocence. Some people are evil, though most of them are harmless because they are selfish as well. You'll be better off with a slight(but hey don't overdo it), mean streak.

* The need to be/feel rewarded for every little thing you've done. Yeah, that was great all right but not everybody realizes it.

* your impatience. It could take some time before things improve.

Greenmailing

We would love to go green, but we need your help...is a line you often hear from corporates nowadays. It's become so prevalent that there is actually a word that has been invented for it: greenmailing, as opposed to blackmailing.

It's only a change of shade, you know, from blackmail to greenmail. The greenmailer also aims to exploit a sense of guilt in you for his private gain. But one difference i:, the cheapo greenmailers don't have the guts to admit that they are engaging in cheap greenmail, while the blackmailer has no qualms about doing so . What was that about, Honor Among Thieves?

GREENMAIL in action

* The Bank asks you to opt for account-statements by email. Save Paper!, they say.

Distorted viewpoint? Hardly. These pleas are more about saving petty overhead expenses than about the environment. It's all about the bottom-line, and that is the bottom line!

* The Bank then sends you printed fliers about their latest loans and facilities. They even have the temerity to send you (and keep on sending you!) paper reminders of the importance of opting for paperless email-statements!

More flagrant examples of greenmailing are on view at hotels. The Hotel asks you to reduce your water-usage in the wash-room. Water is Scarce!, a prominently placed poster proclaims. The Hotel asks you to not expect a fresh towel/sheet every day. We need to Conserve Resources!, they say. The Hotel asks you to cooperate during the scheduled switching off of the air-conditioner for two hours...with the energy used by an AC in an hour can be used to...blah blah... Use less, save the environment!

Yeah, right!

Photography Was Allowed!

These snaps were taken when I visited a friend's house - is it in Bangalore or Sign Land, I wonder :), the situation was signs-signs-signs. Some are signs I have (and probably never will :) see anywhere else, some are just naughty perspectives, some are just plain funny! I really had a blast taking these.

The playground was called Concrete Ground for heaven's sake, and there were so many rules that one simply could not relax there...my heart goes out to kids growing up there...

My personal favorites are the no-games-allowed in-toilets, poetic r'turn well-wishing and the children-at-play sign boards... Nope, I did not break any rules taking these pix though, photography was not prohibited!

(I suspect photography will be next! :) )

Malayalitmus Test

I have devised a litmus test to determine the Malluness quotient of an individual.

Depending on how the person says the following word:
Neerazhi (നീരാഴി) - a synonym for the word "sea"

You can determine how much Malayalam a person knows, how "native" he or she is from the way they pronounce this word.

The na, ra, and zha are different!


TIDBITS
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From Wikipedia,

Extinct Kannada letters

Kannada literary works employed letters ಱ (transliterated 'ṟ' or 'rh') and ೞ (transliterated 'ḻ', 'lh' or 'zh'), whose manner of articulation most plausibly could be akin to those in present-day Malayalam and Tamil. The letters dropped out of use in the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, respectively. Later Kannada works replaced 'rh' and 'lh' with ರ (ra) and ಳ (la) respectively.^[70]

Another letter (or unclassified vyanjana (consonant)) that has become extinct is 'nh' or 'inn'. (Likewise, this has its equivalent in Malayalam and Tamil.) The usage of this consonant was observed until the 1980s in Kannada works from the mostly coastal areas of Karnataka (especially the Dakshina Kannada district). Now hardly any mainstream works use this consonant. This letter has been replaced by ನ್ (consonant n).^{[citation needed]}

Barking Barking Malayalam Chopping

A joke that Malayalis share about non-Mallus is that the hapless foreigners always say: "Kurachu kurachu malayalam ariyum". This post is about debunking and clarifying that joke - which is quite an impossibility!

Well, a little more about the "joke".

When the foreigner (who has tried to learn the notoriously difficult-to-speak language) means to say:
"കുറച്ചു കുറച്ചു മലയാളം അറിയും ",
They end up saying it as.
"കുരച്ച് കുരച്ച് മലയാളം അരിയും.".

The former means "Little little Malayalam I know" while the latter means "Barking Barking Malayalam I chop"! :)

There is only a slight difference in pronunciation for the 'ra's involved in this statement. The normal 'ra' (റ) sound that a foreign-tonguer would utter naturally would result in the correct version (knowing-knowing) of the statement in question!

The other ra (ര) is a sound that Wikipedia tells me used to exist in early Kannada and Tamil as well; but they became obsolete there. To understand the difference between the two 'ra's, contrast the two la sounds in "Loyola" (ലൊയോള). The difference between the two 'ra' s is also the same.

The barking-barking version of the statement is actually a testimony to Malayali elitism and sarcasm. The joke is that the foreigner would not be able to say the joke... or hear it, he would auto-correct it.

It is an insider joke!... perverse Malayali humour... :)