AFVOA Newsletter May 2020

Section 3 - Memoirs Newsletter No. 1 / 2020 P a g e 58 | 101 11 COVID 19 and Sushil Dushyant Singh Brig V A Subramanyam Genre: Current Affairs ndia is a wonderful country. It is a land – a sub-continent – of many languages and different cultures, all meshed into one to make it – Mere Bharat Mahan. India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!" ~ Mark Twain (Writer, America) The English were quite adept at ‘borrowing’ from other languages. Initially it was limited to Latin and Greek, but as the Empire grew – as Churchill would proudly boast that the sun never sets on the Empire, they took on many words from the Jewel of the Empire – India. Some of the common words that you can easily find in any English dictionary would include – verandah, dhobi. Ayah and many more. It is also not uncommon to use the vernacular with English – at times with hilarious outcomes. One such was told to us by our mathematics professor while we were in college. There is a Barbers Bridge in Madras and he asked us if we knew the origins of that name. When none of us had the faintest clue, he told us that the bridge was named after one Mr Hamilton. And the pronunciation of ‘h’ has no corresponding one in Tamil. Thus, Hamilton gradually became ‘ambattan’, and ambattan in Tamil translates to barber. And thus, the bridge is now known as Barbers Bride – QED! This reminds of an old story while we were in school during the 1940s. A Britisher had come on a short visit to India. The host another Englishman was quite busy and hence asked his Indian assistant to take him round the city and show him the various sights. The Indian had no knowledge of English. Teriyale in Tamil means ‘do not know’. The respectable ‘Sir’ is generally elongated as saar . As they went round the city, the guide pointed out the new stadium, which had just come up. The Visitor asked: who is the architect of this beautiful stadium. The guide answered: Teriayale Saar . As they passed a stunning statue of a bygone VIP, the visitor enquired whose statue it was. Our Guide once again mentioned Teriayale Saar . I