Personal Goods

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To a village bumpkin from a Village School where every subject was taught in Telugu, even English, till my HM father took our Final Year Classes and insisted that he would rather teach English in English to the dismay of all of us, every new word in English was a puzzle (we had no dictionary) and we had to tease its meaning, often atrociously.

But some words become personal friends and ring a bell always, even when they change their meanings over all of 60 years.

Here are some:

1. Good

This perhaps is the first good word we heard. All of us were taught it is the opposite of 'bad'; and occurred second in a declining series of words which our HM father would insert against Character in our Conduct Certificates which would make or mar our future...Excellent, Good, Fair, Average and Unsatisfactory. I don't recall even my strict Father using Bad in a CC.

And so, much later I bet that Good Friday is the Day of Resurrection of Christ and not Crucifixion...and lost badly.

I asked Edwin about this anomaly. And he said Christ died for our Good and not his good.

And then I heard of good quantum numbers. Amazing that quantum numbers occur in the CC Series of Excellent, Good, Fair, Average and Unsatisfactory and maybe Bad too.

It was only when I had to teach QM that I was fretting why. And learned from Mathews and Venkatesan (in a footnote perhaps) that good quantum numbers are of those dynamical variables that commute with the Hamiltonian of the system under consideration, since their expectation values stay constant 'for good'.

And what is 'for good' and why?

Ask me now...I left Physics 'for good', for my good and the world's. But it always felt 'bad' to me when someone leaves some place 'for good'.

And when I heard my Father tell someone: "It is a goods train", I was enchanted...

And when my son was away in the US the agonizing first time for me and replied "I am doing good" on phone, I was dismayed. Our generation always replied "I am doing well" till I joined IIT KGP when I heard: "I am doing fine".

2. Well

My first Well was of course the one in a our courtyard where we took our baths in the open.

When I read of Sam Weller I almost thought that there would be a Wellest...childhood is funny.

It is only recently that I heard the word Wellness...it is there almost everyday in the Hyderabadi ads for Real Estate to Gyms to Baths to Steamy Joints.

3. Nice

The first I heard of this word is when a city uncle of mine brought a packet of Nice Biscuits, and they were really nice.

But when I read about a 'nice' distinction, I was thrilled.

4. Fine

This was of course routine punishment for latecomers in our School, and I was collecting them for the year when I was elected a Class Monitor.

5. Monitor

Imagine my dismay when I read the caption: Water Monitor under the picture of a really huuuge lizard.

6. Gay

This was a word that occurred with Bright...bright and gay.

It is a shame I no longer venture to use it (nor our Minister who tread on many MSM toes by calling gaiety a 'disease').

7. Charm

I still use this word whenever I can...there was this ad for the beauty cream Charmis in my teens... the picture of that girl's face in the ad evokes the agonizing pains of growing up which incidentally never ceased happening to me, so far.

But when I read Feynman say: "It works like a charm" about some mean trick of differentiating under the integral sign, it was fabulous to me. Till then I was using Talisman.

8. Fun

It was fun when I learned the funny use of 'fun' from the Pro's Parrot inviting the Priest's Parrots:

"I am a pro...come let us have some fun"

9. Mood

Surprisingly I first read this word in English Grammar; the indicative mood, the imperative mood and the subjunctive mood.

But of course the best use of this word, for me, was by Paresh Rawal in Hungama:

Akshay Khanna: Anjali, Anjali...Anjali ko chupadiya?

Paresh Rawal: Ha, ha, mainey chupaya anjaliko

Akshay Khanna: Kahan, kahan batao

Paresh Rawal: Baad mey bathaunga...abhi mera mood nahin hai



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