We are all guilty of verbosity and of hyperboles stretched to extents that some words ( Amazing, Awesome & so on !) have lost original shape (meaning), just like a cricket ball does after it’s been hit for many sixes ! Even in our early days elderly Bengali aunts said ‘daroon hoiche’ (it’s excellent) to a new dish, song, dance presented out by a youngster to make them happy ! Respect for our parents, elders, filial, family ties would make us sing their praises on celebratory occasions, all knew these were emotionally overstated.
One thing that our teachers taught us in school was to be clear, lucid and simple in our narration and avoid circumlocution (use of many words where fewer would do) and précis writing was part of that. If one used a structure of complex sounding words and terms but their essay delivered little to no sense, the English master would get irked & cut marks. In those days grammar & structure mattered, now each can coin his own …
During our graduation days in the 1970s, ‘Fantastic’ was an all pervasive word used in conveying thoughts aptly. After an exam, my Dad asked my friend how it went and he said ‘Bahut Fantastic’ ! Following the next exam, Dad again accosted him with same query. My friend replied less confidently ‘Fantastic, but not that fantastic’ ! Dad had a hearty laugh, being old school and weaned on Queen’s vocabulary. But that was then. Now, ‘Legendary’ is being used for all artists that’s denigrating the really true greats !
Communication forms a vital part specially in the service industry like banking where I got my career. I recall one letter by an officer to the concerned Authority for his transfer in which he began with ‘Respected Sri (Boss Surname) ji, Namaskar’ to convey his deep reverence. Even he’d requested to ‘Dear Sir’, HR Dept’s answer would still be the same. We learnt in service, being polite to seniors was Ok, but showing ‘bhakti’ was a fine art !
Talking big was always part of promotional sales pitch but the print and social media as well as eloquent TV anchors and sports commentators have perfected the art of making everything sound grandiose and spectacular. Recently an English channels conferred on SRK the ‘Indian of the Year’ award with huge fanfare. The King said ‘I’m not that, I’m Indian for all Ages’ in Bollywood Badshah-like, over-the-top bravado to instant ‘taalis’ !
In all this, Cricket cannot be left behind – after singing paeans on the ‘God of Cricket’ Sachin till he retired, commentators cannot stop eulogizing King Kohli, so much so that he lost his form for almost 2 years. A refreshing change was Geoff Boycott calling Dada Ganguly ‘Prince of Kolkata’ in his heydays. Ravi Shastri leads the off-field drama with his ‘tracer bullet’ comments. Ballistic Sidhu had once said ‘Ball is hit high, it’s might kiss the air hostess in flight in the skies’. Truly, we are the greatest, as far as verbiage goes.
Working on Living 