Peripatetic

While this blob has remained slumped in the same cyberspot, i have been moving. With dizzying rapidity, i have gone from bangalore to pune to delhi to sri lanka to london, where i have now come to rest.

so it's a tweedy and muffled orcaella brev. addressing you over a pint of bitter from the corner seat at the pub.

many years ago, when i was just a rebellious teen growing up in the irrawaddy delta i came across a book that began thus:

In Life*, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.
On the other hand, the world is litterered with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places.
Our job, as we see it, is to get these words off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.

*And, indeed, in Liff.

It struck me particularly, as there was the following entry in the book:

POONA (n.) - Satisfied grunting noise made when sitting back after a good meal.

Indeed.

It was only last week that I found out that the book in question was "the meaning of liff" and was co-written by douglas adams.

i would love to start off a blob tag chain letter-type event, with everyone naming the place they last visited, and using it to define a recognizable situation or event for which no word exists. but i need to get back to dealing with my CHANAKYAPURI (n.) - the situation when the bread portion is constantly replenished, but the curry portion remains intact after eating it for half an hour. typically seen while eating pavbhaji, chole bhature or misal pav.

POONA.