Saturday, May 25, 2013

Farmyard Metaphors - 3

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Goats were all over our village Muthukur in the 1950s. But I can't say that about sheep.

Indeed I never could 'tell the goats from sheep'...since I didn't 'know my onions'.

For a long while I didn't know the meaning of the metaphor: 'that got my goat'. Till I looked up the wiki page. But I knew that goat is a cool animal, extraordinarily placid. In Telugu its cool character is attributed to its false bravado since it apparently remains absolutely unperturbed while waiting in the queue for slaughter...it keeps browsing till the last second....unlike a dog.

Maybe its 'coolness' has to do with its foolishness...is there an intimate connection?

'Acting goat' also is a funny metaphor. It means, I am told by the Free Dictionary, acting silly just to draw attention. I can't say I have seen any real goat 'acting a goat'...they were all sublime. Maybe it has something to do with its 'goatee'...apparently Professor Calculus is annoyed when Haddock calls him a goat...


 

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Rams, I have seen quite a few...fighting each other frontally. So I could understand why a 'battering ram' is what it is.

I haven't seen, although I've heard quite a few of them nightly at KGP, a real fox in the wild.  Fox somehow is universally credited with cunning...and I have been 'foxed' by quite a few integrals in my time.

I haven't also seen a wolf in wilderness. Wolfing means eating greedily and devouring. In Sanskrit there is this term: "Vrikodara", meaning one who has a belly like a wolf...attributed to Bhim. I asked Father about it and he told me that Vrikodara is one whose belly is always concave however much he devours...and he told me smilingly that he himself is a Vrikodara. I didn't notice it till then but it is true...he was a hearty but disciplined eater, but even after a ceremonial meal, his tummy never looked bloated...strange.

Now that we have come to animals in the wild, there is this phrase in Sanskrit: Simhamadhyama. Lions are supposed to have great vital statistics...it is true...their 'hips' are so narrow compared to their bust.

Recently I read the phrase: "Tiger Mom". I have seen quite a few tiger moms in the IIT KGP Campus...they are sweet till their son fails to get that first rank in his Nursery Class. They are more bothered about the marks that other kids get than their own...and make indiscreet  and frontal inquiries. Their kids never got over their aversion to this feature of their tiger moms.

Once my M.D. Uncle was gifted a couple of cute rabbits...they did appear soooo helpless and scared...but of course their number increased by leaps and bounds...I read there is a series for this...is it Fibonacci?  But they all perished in one single day...



 



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