What's the translation of Crocin?

India
December 22, 2006 3:14am CST
LANGUAGE can unite. And it can divide, too, as in the recent unhealthy protests against English by the dad of a health minister who goes about applying tar on what's not Tamil. As a result, there are confused readers mailing in to know the equivalents for the many common words that have suddenly become taboo. "Tears are the silent language of grief," said Voltaire, yet here's some help for the word-hit and Tamil-tarred. How many speak English? This is a language for which, as www.ethnologue.com informs, world over there are 341 million first language speakers and 508 million second language ones, including 11 million from India. Another site, www.country-studies.com, frets that little information is available on the extent of knowledge of English in India. What's the translation of Crocin? Perhaps, you're desperately in need of a goli for headache because of worrying too much about language. With the self-appointed crusader around, with black buckets and paintbrushes, to save you from fracture because of talking in English, I'm frantically searching for equivalents posted at mohfw.nic.in, the site of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Meanwhile, try kaaka-paavam, which is what I could manage by splitting the word into crow and sin. I'm afraid we'll all end up in confusion! Quite possible, because history tends to repeat itself. "According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach the heavens," recounts Wikipedia. However, God had a different plan, it seems. He didn't want the project to finish, so He confused the languages. Thus, when one fellow asked for sand, he'd get water, and so forth. With new names on restaurant menu cards, be prepared to be surprised at what you'd ultimately get to eat! Heard that they're pushing English in the US! Yes, there's the new English Language Unity Act of 2005, which is gaining more sponsors in its effort to make English the official language of the US. "A similar bill passed the House in 1996 but expired when the Senate failed to act on it," informs http://edition.cnn.com. "Beginning with Louisiana in 1812, 27 States have adopted some form of official-English law." Isn't it a parody? If you're talking about Antal Parody, he has a new book on language called Eats, Shites & Leaves sub-titled Crap English and how to use it. It has an interesting disclaimer: "All spelling and grammatical errors in this book are intentional; otherwise they were put there by the editor." Intro declares that English is `an unruly animal.' And if you look around, you'd find the tamer! Can we be cruel on the basis of language? Not sensible, but true. It seems that donor countries to the UN practise overt discrimination as to whether a recipient country is "French, Portuguese, or English-speaking," as Thalif Deen of the Inter Press Service News Agency writes in a disturbing report. "Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing," said Claude Levi-Strauss. Perhaps, the militant tongue-tiers are to be forgiven "for they know not what they do." But if you want to scold them, you know what language to use!
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