Ajji

Music soothes no more
It is merely a reminder of your melodious voice and of all the songs you taught me.
A source of boundless love, comfort and warmth, an epitome of serenity, an undemanding giver,
By instinct, you chose to reminisce of reasons for cheer when your pain had rendered us all joyless;
You chose to be content , unaffected by all the troubles that came your way;
We see you Ajji, in all that could make us smile.
We were still learning from you the art of appreciating simple pleasures, of acceptance and of gratitude,
We are now left to learn these precious lessons without the teacher who taught by example.
Ajji, with each passing day, your absence has become harder to accept.

You are reading my journal

The Lake Superior State University has included the word 'blog' among several other 'misused, abused, over-used or useless' words of the English language that ought to be proscribed. It appears in the 2005 Banished Words List along with phrases like 'wardrobe malfunction' and 'pockets of resistance'. Somebody who nominated for 'blog' to be 'banished' would like to see words like 'diary' and 'journal' being used instead ( since blog comes from weblog = web+log i.e, an online journal).
Some of the other words in the list indeed deserve to be there ; anybody caught using 'safe and effective' , 'all new' and 'and more!' again should be put through rigorous courses in vocabulary amelioration that require them to learn words like 'absquatulate' , 'spifflicate' and 'sternutatory' all day long as punishment. 'Blog' seems to be the most innocent word in that list- it really doesn't deserve such harsh treatment- what say, fellow keepers of online journals?

In my defence..........

.......It happens the world over- southerners speak differently! In the one year that I have been in the Great Indian Melting Pot, Mumbai, I have endured excruciating analyses of my accent when I speak Hindi by well-meaning friends, casually curious strangers and certain chauvnistic compatriots. There have been several theories about the accent that mine resembles the most- the venerated Sonia accent, the distinct Rajni accent( this would be my personal favourite if I had to vote) or the angrezi accent of Lagaan fame.....and the list , to my exasperation, is growing! I have tried real hard to speak Hindi 'normally'- but the accent just keeps coming back ! That set me thinking- maybe this is all due to some really powerful linguistic influence that south Indian languages have on their speakers. But then I remembered the classes I had while learning French where we were taught how the Southern accent is different from the popular Parisian accent. It was then that I realised- this is a global phenomenon- it happens everywhere- the US where SAE( Southern American English) is studied as a seperate dialect by linguists, it happens in Britain, Spain, Japan....! I say we ought to accept the South Indian accent just as a distinct southern accent has been accepted in all these other countries and let it stay that way- it has its own charm! (it really does!... and to those who do not buy that-you need perspective, meri aankhon se dekho zara!)