The Role of Jargon

 Jargon makes the world go around, Your Honour. Or so it would seem. Lawyer/court jargon, management/corporate jargon, Medical jargon, and so on.

A friend at IIM had constructed a matrix for generating management jargon. He created three columns, with complex words in each stack. Random mixing of any three- one from each column- generated a new term. Instant Jargon Generator was the name he gave it. It was great fun!

Maybe jargon is a shortcut for communicating with people in the same field, but it also leaves others mystified, most of the time. 

I learnt some law jargon by reading Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason series. Habeas Corpus, for example.. Mandamus or something similar too.. anyway, I rest my case. You go figure if it helps, or hinders ..

Talking to School Children at Nanded

Had a unique opportunity to talk to school kids at a Nanded school. It was scary too, because I was new to this experience. The talk was on careers, since the small-town Indians are generally a bit less aware of career options, and their parents may be less aggressive in hunting for options other than the mainstream- CA, Medical or Engineering. Though I am a mainstream engineer/MBA, my kids are not, so I gave examples of careers that are non-mainstream.

These are the kids-all of them, with some teachers.Biggest audience for my talk in recent times!

Nanded is famous for a Gurudwara too, and here are some pics of this amazing place of worship.

Braggitis

I have noticed a new disease afflicting millions of people. It started in the developed world (whatever that may mean), and is threatening to envelope the under-developed world (whatever THAT may mean) in a tight embrace. It is called Braggitis, and it can be transmitted through the air, water, earth, or any known method of transmitting these things. Hot air is generally found in the vicinity of the Bragger- one who suffers from Braggitis, I mean.

Here is how it works. Say, a human in close proximity to you says,

You know, the other day, I was admitted into Escorts (name of a hospital, in case you get wrong ideas) for a colonoscopy after an endoscopy."

Your likely response when you are a victim of Braggitis,

" Oh, that is nothing. I am continuously being injected with 3 vials a day for acute rhinitis, right now."

Response to this might border on the ludicrous, for example,

"Oh, I didn't know a rhino bit you. You just came from Kaziranga?"

But even if the other person is sober, he may still be a victim himself, of the same affliction as you. In which case, he would say,

" Why, in my family, no one has crossed fifty without getting at least a bypass done."

Response, " My wife is having an IVF done from Dr. Shah, the famous specialist at Apollo."

The counter attack, " My uncle in Kolkata went to Escorts (these infernal escorts are everywhere-can't be shaken off) for an angio (a fashionable shortened form for angiography or angioplasty) , you know, and they told him he had to get three stents in right away, or else he wouldn't be around for his daughter's wedding."

And so on. You get the point? Bragging rights are now based on which brand of hospital, which great doctor, you went to, and maybe how many tubes were inserted into your nose.

I only wish I had lymphosarcoma of the intestines, like Rajesh Khanna did in Anand. Looks hard to beat, no?