Pastime! One of my pastimes has been to browse through the dictionary. Simply I will turn up a page and look up the words and their meanings. If enamored by a word or two, I will start writing simple sentences using them. It was a good of learning the language, I thought. This habit later turned out to writing articles. I did so with both Tamizh and English dictionaries. Later on I was introduced to the Thesaurus, by Dr.E.K.Ramasamy. (he turned out to be my critic and fan!). Subramonia Pillai and Sundararajan enjoyed my pieces. Sivakumar of English, said I was a juggler with words! Anyhow it was time well spent! In return, I introduced them to Crosswords! With Subbiah of Mathematics joining them, all had some good fun and enjoyed their evenings! Mohan, now of IIT Chennai, formerly at Periyar Arts college, Cuddalore was my mentor and the man behind whatever little English that I know of. Thank you man! Now! Here is one such production for your kind reading and comments…….! Between the Lines! One day I was explaining Hoarfrost Line to my students. Just before that we were discussing ‘isobars’ which are lines of same pressure points. There was a occasion when Plimsoll line was taught in hydrostatics. As a Physics teacher there were so many ‘lines’ that came into my domain. One day when there was nothing worth doing, or so I thought, I set my thoughts on such lines. It was a kind of ‘thought experiment’ Albert Einstein would have been proud to have done! To my surprise I found that there were so many lines that came to my mind, as produced in an assembly line! Even a quick glance at the front page of a daily will reveal so many lines! The news from the border will talk of ‘the line of control (LoC)’ being crossed by the neighbors. It could be the ‘McMohan Line’ or the ‘Durand Line’. The reporter would say the ‘date line’ is from Siachen! One only hopes that ‘battle lines’ are not drawn between neighbors. All political parties and in fact all organized institutions have what is called ‘the party line’. There are times when everyone is expected to ‘toe the line’. If you do not ‘fall in line’, it doubly sure you will be in the ‘line of fire’. Of course steps will be taken to bring you into line. Whether the attempts will be on ‘right lines’ is another point. The ‘bottom line’ is that you simply ‘line up’ alongside the mighty and powerful! You just sign on ‘the dotted line’ making it clear that you won’t fall ‘out of line’. A careful reading of the article ‘line by line’ is what an editor would do to ensure that no controversy is generated. There is ‘fine line’ between what is right and wrong. Some smart writers (not me, for sure!) present things in a manner that gullible readers swallow ‘hook, line and sinker’, whatever is written. There is another group of readers who always ‘read between the lines’. But whatever one writes, a line of compliment from the readers is a must. They are expected to ‘drop a line’. Talking about lines, one is reminded of another line that assumes prominence in the economy of any nation. It is what the economists and the politicians call ‘the poverty line’. Lower this line better is the country. I think this line is indirectly linked to another line. The ‘waist line’. If this line of an average citizen, the common man, tends to get larger, then the State is progressing! The same logic holds good if the ‘sky line’ of a city is dotted with sky scrapers rather than hutments. If only I were a Keats or Shelley, I would pen a few lines and get away by giving it a title like ‘Lines written on….’. But I could sense people ‘making a beeline’ to shoot me down! One should not subject others to boredom line after line! A line should be drawn where things have to stop. A Lakshman Rekha kind of line! This is that line!!!
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:27:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015