Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

I enjoy your writing because of the its charm and natural scent.

I admire your writing more so because of this imperceptible shift in expression. You have studied in Tamil medium and then took upon English after your formative years. I don't know if you realise but it's astonishing. Unless you disclose, no one would suspect of this wilful ascension in your language instinct. It is easier to pick up languages as a kid even with no authoritative semantics by way of a toned-ear in idiomatic sense. A kid can spot a language folly not by noting the underlying grammatical break but from its jarring sound. The syntax does not ring well! For an adult to acquire that idiomatic and intuitive sense is daunting. There have been cases of writers and scholars who learnt foreign languages late in their life. Even then, it is remarkable! In your case it's commendable because you have been able to achieve that in five years of your mindful engagement with English literature, and you have done it in your own right. Every other person on the planet claims to have gobbled books like a ravenous critter. But ...but very few reflect the lettered mastery in their writing by virtue of reading books. In five years of training, and predominantly with PG Wodehouse, you have mastered English like your vernacular.

This progression is not an unexceptional feat. You will find a lot of people who devoured the entire compilation of PGW [and similar books] but you will not find many who forged something meaningful out of this passion and diligence to explore English literature that readily manifests in their conversational flair. I so admire you for this single accomplishment that many only aspire and are left high and dry in such a pursuit. Few of my colleagues and friends write beautiful English ... that punctures me with remorse that I should have focused more on language as a kid. Thus, personal narratives like yours inspire me to contend with my shortcomings [in general].

Where were we? Yes, I adore your writing for the obvious reasons voiced by everyone [repeatedly] on the style and texture of your writing and also the unsaid ones [you match or even exceed the writerly comportment of a convent-bred gent]. Need I say more ...

 

I do have my favorites in IL. Then, I have enough people outside IL who give me that complex with least provocation just by sending out a witty counter to my blather. I don’t intend to take on complexes even within IL as that would plunge me into an abyss of singularity complex from which I can’t crawl out of. I don’t know many devoted writers or bloggers in my life, just people writing casually in a personal exchange on worldly matters like wonder woman and the intersectional feminist cult and blah in a jocular discourse. I don't entertain many De Profundis conversations in my life. If people start talking too profound and lofty, I withdraw. But, I enjoy conversations with interplay of word and wit that few people crank out so naturally and spontaneously. That gives me the complex pinch! They use words and emotions and mixed metaphors and ideational patterns in a charming way. I am a sucker for playful badinage than any baroque or dour writing. In that regard, my complex is like a multiplex where I admire a particular facet of everybody's writing.

 

Ha ha! I was talking last week to a friend (rather crying loud) — how on earth can one improve language. I am frustrated, where and how do I even begin. I just know that I have a slope to ascend with no idea if I've mapped the path of such ascension realistically.

Read more, or write more, write often, write like a bitten maniac. I even inquire at work unabashedly and discreetly on how to write well. At work, they are like Chaucers and Cartlands who compose emails like artwork. They just laugh at me! None with any reassuring guidance. May be writing is natural to few like Isaiah Berlin who could spontaneously dictate well-formed sentences into his dictaphone that needs no revision later. His proteges would listen to his audio recordings and render in text verbatim because there had never been a need to fix his extemporary speech. I am only beginning to realize the importance of language that isn't too contrived and not too sloppy. Re: the storey in the multiplex, there isn't any wrong number bestowed on anyone. My escalator has been stuck for so long in the basement that any movement is certain to be upwards, how does the floor even matter in such a ride. Members signify the end of their frustration here by holding out a 'end of the vent' plaque. I refrain from doing that because my frustration with language is never-ending and insurmountable. (I should change my job and friends in favour of people who talk less or write bad to make me feel better.)

 

I relate to that. I was once in a taxi in India and was conversing in Hindi on the phone (my Hindi is like Danny DeVito speaking Mandarin). The taxi driver inquired at the drop, "Are you from North or South?"

I was puzzled. I said I was born in Sri Lanka, raised in Maldives, went to Andaman for schooling then did college in Nicobar and now in India on work (I give such ridiculous answers too often to strangers when I am holidaying in India. Don't even ask the disposable names I conjure up in taxi trips or coffee shops or airport small talk. Chamundeshwari for the heck of phonetic acrobats). He remarked that my Hindi sounded odd and jarring and broken in that not so complimentary review of my language. It is a different issue that I don't speak good Hindi, I manage with crumbs picked up from Northie friends. You would think such criticism would deter me from torturing people. Nevertheless, my sing-song Hindi streak never abates until people plug buds in their bleeding ears.

The African elephants must be thinking, is it because of the thick grass in India that Indian elephants developed a heavier accent in their trumpets.

 

Are you sure? Did you mean food habits of humans or animals? I mean lizards and roaches are one thing. But an elephant? You may be reprimanded by an animal rights inspector that you are abusing these creatures in your blogs. Have you signed that "no harm was done to any of these animals used in my writing and any resemblance to your household pet is purely coincidental."

 

They do! This has been best studied in passerine birds, which do show geographic variation and dialects in their song! Some links:

Peter Marler - Zoologist, birdsong pioneer
Neural basis of vocal learning - Fernando Nottebohm
Vocal dialects in birds
Birdsong Dialects (MP3s)

I don't know about elephant dialects, but they do communicate meaning in their calls.
What elephant calls mean