Month: August 2009

Our young lawyer friend Ashok and I had a brief exchange earlier this afternoon. He has to study for an important examination, and I shooed him off to study with the admonition that a lot of us expect him to be our lawyer sooner than later. I added that I may even commit a crime to give him some chance, like bumping off one our Politicos.

His response, in a flash, and I quote verbatim -“In that case you would be guilty of social service, which is not yet a punishable offense under the IPC. (Indian Penal Code)

My post on bicycling has generated another picture.  This time from Bikehikebabe who, simply could not resist the temptation, I suppose.  To the best of my recollection, her driving license has not been taken away by her children.  I wonder if this has happened to any one else.  How about you Mayo?

One of course can get completely addicted to it!

An elderly couple, my neighbours, who had been away visiting their children in the USA the past six months, have just returned to Pune and came to know about Urmeela’s passing away. They came to pay a condolence call on me this morning.

I was busy cooking for lunch and must have looked every inch the lndian version of the professional domestic cook. They must have been surprised to see me in the role but did not say anything. After the usual condolence conversation, the old man asked me why I was cooking. I joked and said that I am now the house husband and professional cook for the household. He probed further as to how long I had been cooking, how I learnt to, and whether it was after Urmeela’s passing away, etc and was quite amused when I said that it was an over rated talent and women kept men away from the kitchen to exercise control. I also pointed out that almost all chefs in hotels and restaurants were men. The old man sagely nodded and turned to his wife and said that perhaps it was time that he too entered the kitchen!

Guess what the good lady said?

In the most powerful Indian idiom, the equivalent of “Over my dead body!”

The moment she said that she knew that she should not have said that, bit her tongue and was most contrite and for the next few minutes apologized and berated herself for being so insensitive. Nothing that I could tell her would pacify her.

Anyway, they left after a while and after complimenting me for the tea that I had given them, satisfied that I was not offended.

I had been mulling over this little conversation and decided that I should post about it to convey this message. It is this. We often use commonly used phrases and idioms at the spur of the moment without considering the context and the situation. We can commit such faux pas and land up in embarrassing situations.

Has anything like this happened to you too?

Having got that out of the way, here are some other kinds of MURDER. Murder of the English language which I love.

We all know who those Murderers of the English language are, don’t we?

For the Pièce de résistance,

MURDER AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE.

A workman was killed at a construction site. The police began questioning a number of the other workers. Based on past brushes with the law, many of these workers were considered prime suspects. They were a motley crew:

The electrician was suspected of wiretapping once but was never charged.

The carpenter thought he was a stud. He tried to frame another man one time.

The glazier went to great panes to conceal his past. He still claims that he didn’t do anything; that he was framed.

The painter had a brush with the law several years ago.

The heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor was known to pack heat. He was arrested once but duct the charges.

The mason was suspect because he gets stoned regularly.

The cabinet maker is an accomplished counter fitter. The autopsy led the police to arrest the carpenter, who subsequently confessed. The evidence against him was irrefutable, because it was found that the workman, when he died, was hammered.

Now, to tie Murder with last week’s post on love:

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

PS. This is one of the Friday consortium posts and the topic was chosen by Grannymar. Please visit, Conrad, Ashok, Grannymar, Magpie and Mariana for their posts.