Sloganeering - 4

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http://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/42301054-churchill-v-sign-416.jpg

Talking of slogans I was saying the other day that any silent gesture that provokes a reaction or makes a statement is like a slogan.

In our youth in the 1960s there was a plethora of propaganda films about the allied victory over Hitler in the Second World War. And in that black and white era the most popular figure was that of Churchill riding an open army jeep with a smiling cigar between his lips and making a V-sign with his fingers (see pic above).

And the V-sign caught the imagination of us Indians and I am happy that it has survived to this colorful day after so many decades:

http://s3.india.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bjp-leader-narendra-modi-flashes-the-v-sign-and-shows-his-inked-finger-to-supporters-after-voting-at-a-poll.jpg

I don't watch TV at all these days. My single sofa is so placed in our drawing-cum-dining hall that I face the kitchen instead of the TV...a much more pleasanter thing all in all.

So the other day on the dining table, Ishani was being lectured by her mom and dad about eating etiquette. Ishani kept quiet for a whole minute and surprised me with a new hand gesture in which she held her right elbow with her left fist and swung her right arm with a cobra-like gesture. And her parents couldn't help laughing. And I asked her what she meant by that wonderful gesture and she said:

"Baba jee ka Thullu!"

I left it at that and googled for it but couldn't get a good answer. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and here it is:

http://www.fbphotocomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ddmmmc.jpg

There are of course a hundred gestures with five fingers (including a thumb) and it calls for a whole book to explain all of them. The best one I recall is rubbing the forefinger with one's thumb.

http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/images/130-finger_rub.jpg

My son tells me that it means asking for a tip in NY. I don't know. But at IIT KGP in the 1960s it meant asking for a pinch of snuff....a habit that is concealed and the gesture known only between snuff-addicts:

http://lowres.jantoo.com/death-antiquities-snuff_box-box-coffin-antiques-10302934_low.jpg

...Posted by Ishani

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