It pays to increase your word power!

There is a fascinating feature in every issue of Reader's Digest which is titled "It Pays To Increase Your Word Power".I do not know whether you follow it, but I do. In fact, I have been doing so ever since I took to reading the magazine in my school days.
Well, it is not my intention to comment on the feature. I merely recall the title as it has been playing on my mind since early morning. It ocurred to me that this particular title, no doubt patented in some form by RD, is so very relevant to our politicians, across the board!

Some time ago, Hon. Sashi Tharoor likened economy class travel on international flights to "cattle class" travel. There was an all mighty uproar in Parliament at this because people (read our learned legislators from some parties) felt slighted, humiliated, minimised, outraged, exploited and God knows what else, because of the reference to cattle, the holy plural of the holy cow. Apparently, Mr. Tharoor's remark was an affront to all Hindus as it allegedly denigrated the holy symbol of Hinduism, the cow. This remark was also perceived to be seen, in some quarters, as a reference to female air passengers as cows. If only the slighted gentry had the benefit of word power in their repertoire of personal attainments, then the derivation of "cattle class" from the old system of herding cattle in tightly packed freight cars with only standing room for the purpose of moving them across the country, would have been eminently obvious to them. There would not have been any cause for heartburns, religious or otherwise. Mr. Tharoor's remarks would have been accepted as a mere humourous allusion to the discomforts of long-distance air travel by economy class. As indeed, millions of people, like us for instance, actually do in everyday life!

Today, a news has emerged that an Hon. Chief Minister of one of our States, has taken umbrage at being told that, in matters of any state's law and order, "the buck stops there", i.e. the Chief Minister's desk. We are given to understand that the expression is a slang and derogatory in nature...that it is not the appropriate language in describing a high public office. If the expression "passing the buck" can be used in profusion in both public and private life, I do not see the logic in objecting to "the buck stops here", unless, of course, it is again the lack of mastery over word power! If the reference is indeed humiliating, then spare a thought for the generations of U.S.Presidents who have inflicted self-humiliation on themselves over the centuries by having a plaque bearing the words "The Buck Stops Here" placed on the Executive desk of The Oval Office! Is the office of the President of the USA, a high enough public office?

There is a limit to sensitivity. The over-the-top reactions are no different from a wide range of people who take immense offence at being called (albeit wrongly) "nonsense" for some reason or the other! The word "nosense", for some mysterious reason, acts as a red rag in front of a raging bull. Plenty of really colourful adjectives do not evoke or provoke such extreme reactions as the innocuous "nonsense" does. You must have come across this many a time. I wonder if the great Sukumar Roy would have felt slighted if he had come across the descriptions of his works as "Nonsense poems". Somehow, I do not think so. After all, Sukumar Roy had word power at his disposal.