Vernacular miseries

Today was the first time I felt great about the department lecture theatre.

There was an ambience and our mathematics teacher was teaching in a way never seen before (that perhaps was because I was attending his lecture for the first time!!! ;-)) and I was able to follow a lecture in a long-long time!

Anyway, let me get to the point. I had an (I don’t know what I should call it) today. A good friend of mine, Rakesh (name changed), took it to me. He started with asking me whether or not, I knew the meaning of misanthrone. I replied in the negative. I realized that misanthrope was the word he was looking for when he explained its meaning! I corrected him (had a torrid time doing so!) and asked if he was trying to follow the great vocabulary builder by Norman Lewis. He said,” yes!”. I felt genuinely happy as this was the first time I was seeing a person coming from a vernacular background making an honest effort to improve his language.

But little did I realize what he’ll come up in the next few minutes. He asked me the meaning of fifteen odd words. I started to realize what this guy was trying to do. He stopped at a word I didn’t know the meaning of and I later found out that it didn’t even exist. Then we almost fought over the legitimacy of the following sentences

Had I played cricket?

Had I played cricket, we would have won the match.

I tried to explain him for a good five minutes as my heart winced in pain at what he doing. I realized that it was the sheer frustration that was erupting from his side over the difference in the language skills. I avoided saying that I knew it better. At that point of time, my friend came to my rescue only to be caught himself! He agreed with Rakesh and got the matter settled.

Sometimes I wonder whether you should be genuinely interested in helping your lesser talented friends.