By Devraj Singh Kalsi
Expansion of vocabulary or building an arsenal of words was considered a gargantuan task, often changed to a leviathan one by puritans of prose who did not approve of our bestial similarity with orangutans. Even though the staunch critics of grandiloquent writing lambasted those who garnished their prose with highfalutin words that flummoxed readers, the proclivity of great authors to allow a smattering of bombastic words to embellish their prose was construed as a malady that could never find its panacea.
If you had to struggle inexorably to reach here with clarity, rest assured that the real motive was not to make it esoteric but to remind myself that the fond remembrance of flowery words and phrases was more of a memory shuffle to ascertain whether the words that entered the mind during the high school days continued to retain space or they had evanesced like wilted petals or burst forth like bubbles without any lineage to record their existence. With infinitesimal effort to conjure up this paragraph, it was easy to tell myself that the struggle put in to build this wealth was not squandered by disloyal memory even if the usage carried scope for amelioration. Stop! Take a deep breath and ricochet off to a normal pattern that settles and sediments. Please!
Like flashy wealth mirrored by luxury limos and verdant mansions, the writer made a gross attempt to flaunt his wealth of language by embellishing his prose with bombastic words that did not enrich the core meaning, but these were used as props to proffer a facelift. Not understanding their worth showed the lack of sensibilities in the author and the big words made the wordsmith look robust even if the thoughts were pedestrian. Good writing demanded good, original thoughts and profound thinking was always paramount. Such omissions by exalted authors gave the parvenu the perfect subterfuge to emulate and indulge in linguistic acrobats. Exercise caution, maintain a health distance from indulgent excesses!
Although it was not a lesson from any wise teacher, it became a habit to impress them with crackling prose during our student days. Words became lethal bombs and the pages exploded with plenty of those hurled with the singular motive of revealing student power along with a strict warning to them that such fireworks could embarrass them. Those who shamed us for poor grades were shocked to find our deterrent policy so effective and practical. Some of the students were congratulated for knowing such big words so difficult to pronounce, with a polite advisory to avoid using them in exam papers. When teachers confessed examiners would not consult dictionaries to check out the meaning since there was limited time to check answer scripts, it was confirmed that many of these teachers had to pick up the thesaurus to unravel the meaning of such bombastic words.
Girls were magically attracted to those boys who had a rich vocabulary. It was no less than a status symbol worth acquiring. Those were not the days of google yet, so they had to wait for long to find out the meaning of what they had just heard.
Heavy words were like tons of ammunition. Those who applied them in speech or writing found many admirers even though the application was nothing deeper than mere embellishments. The blank expression on their faces created an air of superiority and some of the students turned competitive and vindictive. They came back with new words to seek revenge and freeze the same dull expression on those who often used big words. This competitive game often led to the development of vocabulary even though the intention was to portray the other person in poor light. Knowing big words became a shortcut to pretend we had knowledge though it was not the case.
Many times, big words were employed to preserve secrets in the conversation; not everything could be easily understood by all. Like the human personality or nature is not always fully understood, it was a thrilling exercise to ensure that the tough words used in conversations remained beyond the comprehension of many listeners, giving the small talk an aura of mystery. This attracted and endeared to many listeners though the usage was far from proper.
Since the English language carried many German, Italian, and French words, using these in the speech made the listeners or readers think we knew these languages as well. They drew a blank and we had to explain what these words meant. ‘Billet doux’ was the first example that brought us into the limelight along with rendezvous. For many days and weeks, we were chased and we used these words so often to enjoy the disadvantages of others with a weaker vocabulary before some sought revenge and told us that we should stick to love letters instead of trying to sound difficult all the time.
Knowing big words meant we were no ordinary readers but special type of privileged people who cultivated the habit of developing our word power from early days. We were identified as language people born with a passion for words and that made us continue acquiring new words. Whenever we found others were picking up new words, we expedited the process and acquired double their strength by reading pages from the dictionary or books dedicated to building word power. When parents heard us use these words, they felt our English was strong. But they failed to understand why our scores did not match. It was easy to mislead them and blame the teacher for not understanding our hi-fi language. It was easy to convince them that something was lacking in teachers, not us.
We were ready to sacrifice big words, but the editorial writers and the literary authors continued using them. Even if we did not use, the world was using them and so we began to bombard such words sometimes, just to keep the momentum alive. We underlined the new ones we came across and checked the meaning and tried to use them in a new context without being sure of their appropriateness. It was a fun exercise conducted with aplomb. Like nuclear power, it was okay to have it, not good to use it, just to position it as a deterrent. But we never paid attention to warnings as we did not want to follow advice from those who never followed their own guidelines.
It was quite a challenge to know the exact meaning and without knowing the meaning we had to understand the sentence. As we noted what we read and understood without knowing the big words thrown in, we also made it a point to use them and yet stay clear in writing so that the reader could understand the overall message without understanding every single word in the sentence. We thought it was a great job to achieve this high level of clarity even if all the words were not grasped. It was avoidable as we used them as adjectives most of the time.
People wanted to know if we were familiar with the actual meaning or we used them blindly. We had to look and sound confident all the time even though there were doubts since some words were having more than one meaning. We found ourselves corrected or challenged at times, and we knew we had to stop arguing or else there was a risk of being exposed as superficial learners and fake users of language. When some people called them archaic, we had to check out again and build a separate reject list of big words that were abandoned or not in use anymore though we were curious to know why they fell out of use or who trashed them and why. The venal offence of words was another mystery that engaged us and we made it a point of duty to identify and defuse those outdated bombs that could not scare any more, more like expired ones that should stay out of circulation or they could misfire and create an awful impression about their deployers.
Devraj Singh Kalsi works as a senior copywriter in Kolkata. His short stories and essays have been published in Deccan Herald, Tehelka, Kitaab, Earthen Lamp Journal, Assam Tribune, and The Statesman. Pal Motors is his first novel.
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