Chitchat

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Somehow I always thought Chitchat is South Indian English.

This is because when a new South Indian neighbor of yours smilingly barges into your room, drags a chair, sits down and pleasantly says: "Just thought we will have a chitchat", that is a sure sign that he has a fairly foul penknife in his pocket to be passed on duly for you to grind free:

Like he and his wife wish bachelor-you to babysit his 5-year-old Calvinclone for a few Minutes that invariably stretch to a Couple of Shopping Hours.

Bachelors, unless confirmed or condemned, tend to imagine that the new neighbor's wife will be pleased and gratified; but half a dozen sittings later they realize that the only thing they get in return is Encouragement for more of the same.

I know! I was such a besotted goat for 14 years at IIT KGP.

Anyway, I just looked up the online Webster and found to my surprise that Chitchat is a single royal word (not two, nor hyphenated...Merriam Webster was famous for his fondness for hyphenation), and means:

chitchat: small talk, gossip

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The other day I was talking about 'A Subtreasury of American Humor' that I bought on the Hyderabad Pavement 35 years ago:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/11/american-humor.html

Pratik wrote to me that his brother got one for him on the Bombay Pavement 8 years ago and wanted to know if they were the same.

They were.

Edited by the celebrated couple E B White & Katherine S White of The New Yorker, it is an Abridged Version of their much longer earlier one; prepared especially for the Armed Services in World War II. I am sure that it made the Marines sprightlier {;-}

My copy was in a dilapidated state even when I bought it for Rs 4 (Four Only). So I read parts of it just once and kept it safely aside.

A decade later DB told me casually that his daughter Dola (Kasturi Basu, now a qualified Journalist) was thinking of learning to play violin under a home-tutor. The next day I gifted her a xerox copy of the Noblest Instrument by Clarence Day from my Subtreausry.

She was so vastly amused that she took up English Literature instead {;-}.

Another decade later when she was doing her MA (English) from JU, we exchanged gifts: She gifted me a Poe Book and I got my Subtreasury completely xeroxed and bound for my use and gave her my Original freshly bound. I keep reading her Poe and I hope she browses the Subtreaury once in a while.

For me that is the best piece in the whole book. It is available here:

Clarence Day: The Noblest Instrument:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608341h.html#c10

I also loved the piece: Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney:

Russell Maloney: Inflexible Logic

http://nsm.uh.edu/~dgraur/Texts/logic.htm

It is so droll and such a wholesome sarcasm on the Theory of Probability.

Pratik wrote that the book introduced him to the Gnu by Hereford. It is available online for reading along with the hugely diverting drawing of a wide-brimmed-hatted-lady braced up a tree and looking down at her chasing gnu.

Here is the poem:

The Gnu

Beware, my Dear, if ever you
Should chance to come across a Gnu!
You may be Fair, and Tall, and Svelte,
But do not hope the Gnu to melt.
You may be Gentle, Kind and True,
These things mean nothing to the Gnu.
You may love Beasts, both Great and Small,
That won't affect the Gnu at all.
You may be Generous, you may
Subscribe to the S.P.C.A.,
All this of no avail will be,
The Only Thing's to Climb a Tree,
And if there is no Tree to Climb,
Don't say you were not warned in Time!

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Pratik also asked what I precisely meant by Woolgathering vis-a-vis Meditation in my blog:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/03/woolgathering.html

That Post was an Impromptu:

I was lying down on my bed browsing the American Edition of Thurber Carnival gifted by Jogia and I came upon the Drawing captioned: "Hello, darling----Woolgathering?"

This endearing remark is addressed by the loving wife just entering their Drawing Room with her shopping bag to her stunned husband sitting in a corner of their sofa trying to look lost in thought, with a lady crouching behind the sofa arm by his side trying to hide herself.....

At once I put the book aside and keyboarded that piece.

That was more than six months back; and this is what I roughly mean now:

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Woolgatheirng & Meditation are complementary Modes of Mind.

When you have a problem stated and you try to solve it, you are in a Meditative State.

When you are looking for a Problem to solve, you are in a Woolgatheirng State.

Right now, everyday from about Noon to about 3 PM I lie down on my bed trying hard to get hold of a topic for next day's blog. It is perfect vacuum in the beginning and the mind is going round and round all corners of itself to fetch one. This is Woolgathering.

Once the Title hits, the mode of mind switches at once into Meditation, collecting Material and arranging Thoughts; and then by night the Keyboard takes over and supplies the Words.

Another Example:

When I am invigilating for 3 long hours in the Exam Hall, the students (those who CAN), are busy in the Meditative State solving Problems.

All this while, I am Woolgathering trying to cook up a Problem for my next Paper (either a Research Paper or a Question Paper).

Another Example:

When a Chemist is trying to Discover a Missing Element in the Periodic Table whose atomic number, atomic weight and chemical properties are known, he is Meditating how.

When Einstein tries to Invent a New Theory of Gravity consistent with his Relativity he is Woolgathering.

Another Examle:

When you are solving the day's Cross Word Puzzle you are meditating.

And when you are trying to set up tomorrow's Puzzle you are Woolgathering.

Woolgathering is Creative while Meditation is Concentrative; Shakti & Shiva.

Meditation is like trying hard to Suppress the Truth while Woolgathering is like trying to Invent a Lie (gul) to your Lady Love; unfortunately both self-defeating.

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I was looking up the etymology of Honeymoon in the Online Webster.

Instead I got hooked by some of its rhyming words:

afternoon, call the tune, greasy spoon, importune, opportune, pantaloon, silver spoon, tablespoon

If you have the Time and Inclination, there is a feast of limericks there!

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Today is Diwali here. It is the Festival of Light & Sound.

Also the Symbol of Woman Power.

The most powerful Person in India right now is a Woman (among the Top 5 in the World).

High time America catches up with the Civilized South Asian Democracies like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh that have been throwing up Elected Woman Heads of Governments time and again.

Come on America! Join our Exclusive Equal Rights Club!


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