I did the first version of Hello English almost two years ago. I had a feeling - then - that I might get a chance to follow it up with sequels. A sequel at least, to be fair. So here we are!
There has been an extensive rush of matrimonial alliances all around the place and consequently a lot of people have been giving and receiving wedding wishes. This also includes the lot wishing and being wished on wedding anniversaries - which is the actual irritant here. But what is wrong with that, right? Here is what is wrong with it. Off late a lot of people wishing a lot of married couples on the latter's anniversaries, send out their wishes as "Happy Marriage Anniversary". I'd just like to point out that marriage and wedding are not synonyms. The former describes an institution where two people agree to spend the rest of their lives together, while the latter describes the act of getting married. Imagine someone saying, "This wedding is over. I will file for divorce" or "The marriage party was lavish!". "Happy marriage anniversary" falls in the same level of being ridiculous.
While we linger on terms describing different aspects of matrimony - and I have shared this earlier but makes for relevant ranting - if you read marry, Mary, Marie and merry just the same you must demand a refund from your school. They did not do a good job educating you. Given that educating you was their only job, a case of penalty is well in place. Also, if you read this somewhere you'd probably wonder that the typist had a conniptions fit while typing this out - Mary sat with her tea and English Marie in the merry coziness of her living room and watched, like millions, Charles marry Diana on her television.
As a child in school, I was fairly curious about the nuances of language and after a little probing I realised that whatever is known is known as, but whatever is called is never called as. Known as simply alluding to being known for some feat one achieved and being called the consequent nickname one earned by virtue of the feat accomplished. The process of being named may happen with or without as, as the case may be and the context of usage pertains to what 'being named' literally means. If I were to demonstrate the usage of the three terms in a single scene, here is how it would go - Rajni and Ramesh Tendulkar's son was named Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin grew up to be known as 'the God of cricket'. He was fondly called the Master Blaster.
The sheer lack of curiosity in people is the cause of such faux pas. If only they bothered to get into the depth of things, instead of the deepness of things - who the hell even coined that term! - I would not be doing a version 2.0 of this. But hope springs eternal and I will come back with a version 3.0 too. In a matter of time. So long then!
As a child in school, I was fairly curious about the nuances of language and after a little probing I realised that whatever is known is known as, but whatever is called is never called as. Known as simply alluding to being known for some feat one achieved and being called the consequent nickname one earned by virtue of the feat accomplished. The process of being named may happen with or without as, as the case may be and the context of usage pertains to what 'being named' literally means. If I were to demonstrate the usage of the three terms in a single scene, here is how it would go - Rajni and Ramesh Tendulkar's son was named Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin grew up to be known as 'the God of cricket'. He was fondly called the Master Blaster.
The sheer lack of curiosity in people is the cause of such faux pas. If only they bothered to get into the depth of things, instead of the deepness of things - who the hell even coined that term! - I would not be doing a version 2.0 of this. But hope springs eternal and I will come back with a version 3.0 too. In a matter of time. So long then!
