Meanings

Languages are unique. Every month has a unique meaning therein. April is the cruellest month, while the March ides are indeed worth being cautious about. Such unique meanings mostly come from literature. 

English is so replete with such meanings that my brother sent me a literary clock wherein for every minute there is a quote which uses that exact time precisely. It is a great gift by Parag because I can spend a very happy half an hour every  now and then reading the most interesting quotes every minute!

Obviously, every language has such unique connotations. Spanish, for example, may not talk about the nine lives of a cat. It allows us, human beings, seven falls, for example, and exhorts us to get up the eighth time. How very encouraging, right?

In German, the most favourite food there, der Wurst, the sausage, has two ends which means everything wonderful comes to an end. Why, in German, the morning has gold in its mouth. What a way to make one an early bird, right?

French has that Cartesian, very Frenchie, tres intellectual, axiom to the effect that ' I think therefore I am (or I am because i think).' Not only does French grant you the complex hope that 'what will be, will be'. It assures you, moreover, most philosophically that 'one who lives will see' while the reverse 'one who sees will live' is inherent to the deeply lovely quote structure. Very French!

Japanese agrees that there is no fight if there is no opponent. Now this can either mean 'do not fight at all' or it can mean 'fight with a worthy foe', that is to say, choose your battles well/wisely. Every barking cur is not worth a bite by, right? 

Our very own Marathi is picturesque, right? It informs us that just because somebody hides a rooster, the sun does not stop its rise! Yet another very worldly wise and quite wor(l)d wary dictum asserts as well as assures that the mother-in-law and the  daughter-in-law both would have their own day!

Sanskrit, after all the 'devbhasha', so overflows with such  meaningful sayings that during my school days, I had the duty of writing on the special school board a 'subhashitam' each day. May be, the writing on the wall, our school would have hoped, would make us all wiser!

So wonderfully meaningful are languages that the Czech language believes that learning a new language is getting a new soul, while Gaston Bachelard, a critic/philosopher who initiated a phenomenological paradigm shift, talks of the beauty in/of/by language.

Pratima@Why have I not referred to Hindi? Is that your question? Well, Saturday evening, my colleague's son, Shantanu Gokhale, a hugely talented santoor player (and a surgeon, too!) is going to explore the Chaitra mood via classical, folk and the      gold(e)n great Bollywood renditions which would be an evening  worth a great (Hindi) listen, right?