Talking up

I am sorry because I have not updated this blog since a very long time. But to my joy, I have been receiving your comments, and where most of them were
encouraging, a few appeared in any encrypted form (encrypted: electronic information or signals not understood due to secret coding.) I am amazed at the
creativity of people that how they manage to invent all that stuff! Naturally, I have not released those unclear comments.

At the moment I am stuck up in a building because some political leaders are about to arrive and due to security concerns I am unable to make a move.
I don't have my mobile phone otherwise I would have talked with my friend to while away these moments (while away something: to pass time in a relaxed
way as you have nothing to do or you are waiting for something.) So, I have cracked open this laptop to write for the blog. Good idea?

I phone my friends and love talking with them. (It is never 'phone to someone' - it is always 'phone someone'.) Spending time talking over phone often
makes people believe that you are having a romantic affair with someone, however, I am very far from it. Once my warden ma’am took me to task on this suspicion,
but thankfully I was able to convince her (take someone to task: to scold someone.)

A joyous thing in winters is warm sun. I enjoy warming myself in sun (not in sunshine / sunlight because linguistically it is wrong) and if I am having
tea and my beloved laptop is with me, it becomes like a dream.

I think that now those politicians have left and I can move. Heartfelt thanks for your sweet company and for bearing with me! I am very thankful because
you people like reading this blog, though really there is nothing special about it. I love you all!

Talking Again

I have numberless things to tell you but converting the thoughts to written words is a titanic task. I require a tremendous effort of the will to give a shipshape and clear exit to my thoughts and ideas (which try to rush out from my mind) otherwise whatever I write - it appears futile to the readers. This, I feel, is a common problem for all the novices; practice is the key to clarity.

As my fingers are dancing on the keyboard, the lovely breeze laden with the fragrance of the coming winters is filling me up with mirth. I can hear,
a bit far from here, a pigeon is flying and the sound of its wings is giving me joy; the sweet warmth of the setting sun is brimming everything with love and life!

But tell me anyone why on earth I am scribbling all this stuff when I wanted to tell you some common mistakes of English language? Beautiful weather
and romantic evening are actually forcing me to beat about the bush!

Listing the meanings of the words used above before going to the mistakes of English language:

1. Titanic [adjective] extremely powerful, strong, important or large (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



2. Shipshape [adjective] (informal) tidy and with everything in its correct place (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



3. Futile [adjective] (of actions) having no effect or achieving nothing; unsuccessful (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



4. Novice [n.] 1. A person new to a field or activity; a beginner. 2. A person who has entered a religious order but has not yet taken final vows. Also called novitiate. (taken from thefreedictionary.com)



5. Fragrance [noun] 1. A sweet or pleasant smell 2. A liquid which people put on their bodies to make themselves smell pleasant (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



6. Mirth [noun] (literary) laughter, humour or happiness (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



7. Scribble [verb] to write or draw something quickly or carelessly. Also scribble [noun] a careless piece of writing or drawing (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)



8. Beat around the bush (UK also beat about the bush) to avoid talking about what is important (taken from dictionary.cambridge.org)

Mistakes of English language

• It is always “one of my friends / neighbours / shirts etc.” because you are pointing a single item from a group. You cannot say, “one of my friend
  / neighbour / shirt etc.”



• Never write “Your’s sincerely / faithfully” because it is always “Yours sincerely / faithfully” (People using screen readers need switching to all
  punctuation in order to get this one)



• The spelling of “surname” is (S-U-R-N-A-M-E) but folks like me put “I” instead of “U”!



• Past tense of “hurt” remains “hurt”



• Past tense of “hold” is “held” and not “holded”

If you wish to read more common as well as uncommon mistakes of English language, you can click Avoid
Common Errors and Errors to Avoid. These posts were thankfully appreciated
by the readers - you too might find them useful.

Trying something new

Tomorrow I have to give a presentation on global warming. But since my system went out of kilter, so I could not study anything about it.

I am feeling very nervous because of it. However, I will keep on preparing the presentation and when I will feel that my nervousness is exacerbating, I will get back to you so that I can freshen up my mind.

You might have noticed that I have not provided the meanings of the aforementioned words and idioms. This is because a candid reader very thankfully pointed out that it is disturbing to read the meanings interlaced in the post, so I settled on furnishing them at the bottom of this post. Well, I am trying something new, and I wish that you will enjoy it.

Alternating between the presentation and this post is enjoyable!

Last night I planned that I will be up early in the morning so that I can give sufficient time to the presentation. Yes the same planning; but I had not slept properly since two nights so previous night I slept like a log - and now I am pacing well behind the time!

I am getting a presentiment that I won’t be able to give the presentation properly. This is partly because it is a graphical presentation to which I am very new. I am afraid I have to cut short this post to focus more on the presentation lest tomorrow I will be fishing in troubled waters!

Words and idioms used above:


• Out of kilter: in a state of not working well (dictionary.cambridge.org)



• Exacerbate: verb To make something which is already bad worse (dictionary.cambridge.org)



• Candid: adjective Honest and telling the truth, especially about something difficult or painful (dictionary.cambridge.org)



• Interlace: verb To join different parts together to make a whole, especially by crossing one thing over another or fitting one part into another (dictionary.cambridge.org)



• Sleep like a log and sleep like a baby: to sleep very soundly (thefreedictionary.com)



• Presentiment noun [This word is formal]: A feeling that something, especially something unpleasant, is going to happen; a premonition (dictionary.cambridge.org)


• Fish in troubled waters: Fig. to involve oneself in a difficult, confused, or dangerous situation, especially with a view to gaining an advantage (thefreedictionary.com)

Talking again

Talking again

I am very silently writing this post so that our warden ma’am remains unaware that I am in the computer lab. Hush, she is sleeping, so I will make less noise.

Actually we are not allowed to enter the lab so early in the morning but I come in a surreptitious manner! ‘Surreptitious,’ according to dictionary.cambridge.com, is an adjective which means ‘done secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing.’

To my surprise, I recently learnt that our warden ma’am is above 60. But hale and hearty, she keeps on roaring and running around the hostel like a commando. ‘Hale and hearty’ is used when we refer to people who are strong and energetic in spite of their old age.

Before sneaking in the lab I had no idea that what I will write. But thanks to this roaring warden ma’am that I have got ample ideas to write on. If ever she will know that I am writing such rubbish about her, she will definitely haul me over the coals! ‘Rake / haul someone over the coals,’ according to thefreedictionary.com, means ‘to give someone a severe scolding.’ She last raked me over the coals when she found that my bed was untidy, and I did nothing to make it tidy!

Please do not mind it - I am a workshy chap so I rarely like to clean my room! ‘Workshy,’ (adjective) thefreedictionary.com: ‘not inclined to work; lazy.’

I am going out to bring a cup of tea for myself. Please wait.

Hmm, I am back. I was feeling a bit drowsy but because of this tea I am feeling as fresh as a daisy! Now some of you will think that what the dickens ‘be fresh as a daisy’ is.’ Well, according to thefreedictionary.com, it means ‘to be full of energy and enthusiasm.’

When I gave a start to this post I had no foreknowledge what its matter is going to be. But, encouraged by your feedback, I wrote it. Did I pan out as a blogger?

Before shutting up let me copy paste the meaning of ‘pan out’ from thefreedictionary.com! This phrasal verb means ‘To turn out well; be successful.’

Talk up

Talk up

It has been a long time since I posted last. Every Sunday I used to think that I will write but I found myself tasked anywhere else.

Thankfully, today as time is on my hands, I thought of talking with you. ‘Time on your hands’ means ‘a time when you have nothing to do’ and this is the favourite period of my life because in it I pursue whatever I wish to!

I had planned that on Sunday I will wake up early so that I could clear the mess of my room and wash my clothes. Writing here, reading David Copperfield and meeting a person was also in my mind.

But I must confess that last night I kept on tossing and turning because I was thinking where the devil to get a job from! Due to this reason I have not been able to properly execute the plan I had made for this Sunday. ‘Toss and turn’ means ‘to be unable to sleep because of any trouble.’

Thinking about the little appreciation people give me, and ignoring how false it is, I slept!

I woke up pretty fresh, albeit late. When on Sundays I don’t set out for any place, I read and write a lot. I also drink lots of tea and coffee!

Never put ‘A’ when you say ‘lots of’ - and never skip ‘A’ when you say ‘a lot of’. It is never ‘a lots of’ and it is never ‘lot of’. A lot of people make this mistake and it is curious that lots of them even know about it!

Such oversights should be taken care of, because they discolour the communication. ‘Oversight,’ according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is a noun and it means ‘a mistake made because of a failure to notice something.’

In writing the aforementioned stuff, my computer hanged several times, and it broke my heart to smithereens. ‘Smithereens’: ‘small pieces or bits’.

So, I will end this post here. I have to also wash my clothes! It would be heartening to hear from you. I like you all very much! God bless everyone!

Improving English

Improving English

If you sincerely write what you feel, you will catch the attention of your readers. I have read that the writing style that touches the heart of the reader springs from a sincere heart.

Words

Prosaic: adjective (Formal) lacking interest, imagination and variety; boring. [This meaning was from dictionary.cambridge.org]

If you are in love with the career you are in, you will never find your life prosaic.

Stonewall verb to stop a discussion from developing by refusing to answer questions or by talking in such a way that you prevent other people from giving their opinions. [This meaning was from dictionary.cambridge.org]

Mr James, understanding that he won’t be able to defend himself, chose to stonewall the matter.

Doughty: adj. Marked by stouthearted courage; brave. [This meaning was from thefreedictionary.com]

The corporate sector is meant for doughty characters.

Idioms

De trop (formal) unnecessary, unwanted or more than is suitable. [This meaning was from thefreedictionary.com]

Presuming that the praises showered on him are de trop, Tom got embarrassed.

The in thing (to do): the fashionable thing to do. [This meaning was from thefreedictionary.com]

Consuming soft drinks is the in thing to do.

Cooler heads prevail: Fig. the ideas or influence of less emotional people prevail. (Used of a tense situation.) [This meaning was from thefreedictionary.com]

People know that cooler heads prevail, but little they do to get rid of their emotions.

Phrases

Incomparably excellent: Sachin is incomparably excellent at batting.

Inborn refinement: An orator of inborn refinement easily attracts the attention of his audience.

Insufficient appreciation: Tom was disheartened due to the insufficient appreciation his work received.

I will also furnish a few common mistakes we make, so please keep on coming to this little place.

Improving English Etc.

Improving English Etc.

Bear with me as I know that I am taking long silences. But a new feature called FeedBurner has been added to this blog using which you can subscribe to my posts.

For those who are using screen readers: I am afraid - in the process of getting subscription captcha will intimidate you. Just let me know if you face difficulty passing it and I will try to get you through the thing.

Captcha is to confirm whether the user is a human or robot. In the technical language, “robot” is referred as “bot” - meaning that it is controlled by anyone else.

A “bot” is a part of a huge number of hijacked computers that are controlled by a single person. And a group of hijacked computers is called “botnet”.

Can I tee off the English stuff? Here is the meaning of “tee off”! This phrasal verb means “to begin something” or “to make angry or disgusted.”

I have taken the meaning of the aforementioned phrasal verb from (thefreedictionary.com). I mentioned the source otherwise Google would have teed me off by banning my blog!

A very positive English proverb is: “The darkest hour is always before dawn.” This proverb says just before sunrise the sky is at its blackest - implying that when good time is in the offing the problems too are at their extreme.

“In the offing” is an idiom which means “anything likely to happen soon.”

My holidays are in the offing - so hopefully I will visit home!

How many of you are living away from home? How lovely the embrace of the family is, one learns after living away from it. I won’t add anything to it otherwise pearly tears might stream down from the beautiful eyes of anyone! I have a very nice nephew, who misses me a lot.

Why do you people always misunderstand me!

Difference between ‘elder’ and ‘older’. ‘Elder’ is used when a person refers to the members of his own family. An example: My elder brother has a nice voice.

Importantly, when ‘than’ is used with ‘elder’, the sentence will read: “My sister is ten years elder than I.” It is wrong to say “My sister is ten years elder than me.”

‘Older’ can be used with both people and things. But, when it is used with people, a person cannot refer to the members of his own family.

You can say “The boy sitting in the first row appears older to me.” But it would be wrong if you say “The boy sitting in the first row appears elder to me,” because that boy isn’t your family member.

Using ‘older’ with things is very simple: “This building is older than that one.”

I hope that I will not tee you off by talking a bit about business!

Assets: Things of possessions that can be converted into cash are called assets. Cash is also assets.

Assets are of two types: fixed assets and current assets. Fixed assets or long-term assets have a life of more than a year. Land, Building, machinery etc., are fixed assets. Additionally, there are intangible fixed assets like the goodwill or brand of a company.

Things that can be easily and quickly converted into cash are current assets. These include money at the bank, bills receivable, debts (the money which someone has to pay you back) etc.

A customer gives bills receivable to the businessman in the place of cash. Thereafter, these bills receivable are quickly converted into cash.

That was all I brought for you. If you have any suggestions for me or if you find me erring anywhere, just let me know. I will really love to read anything written by you.

Let’s Talk

Let’s Talk

I wrote here that I will furnish some financial and technical terms. These terms are used very often yet many a times people don’t understand them. But it is very important for us to have an idea of these terms, because they extensively come in use. Further, I forgot to tell you that I will keep on furnishing stuff which would help you improve your English, because I was distracted by the two idiotic but nice girls who coloured me while I was writing the post.

Girls are becoming rather frolicsome these days! My teacher told me this after reading my post. He might have thought my vocabulary is good. But I needed looking up the meaning of ‘frolicsome’ in the Cambridge dictionary!

‘Frolicsome’ is an adjective which means “enthusiastic and playful.”

Responding to his email I made a blunder. I wrote. “Thanks a lot for taking out time of reading my post despite of your intensely hectic schedule.”

We never add ‘of’ with ‘despite’. ‘Of’ is used with ‘in spite’. So the correct sentence will read:

Thanks a lot for taking out time of reading my post in spite of your intensely hectic schedule.

Sir please excuse your student!

A bad thing about me is that I rarely prepare for things. This is the secret of my failures. I enjoy reading impromptu and spontaneous pieces.

‘Impromptu’ adjective (dictionary.cambridge.org): “done or said without earlier planning or preparation.”

You will not look the meaning of ‘spontaneous’ in the dictionary website I mentioned above! Am I right? So here it is

‘Spontaneous’ adjective: “happening or done in a natural, often sudden way, without any planning or without being forced.“ Telling you another secret - this is an impromptu post!

I am giving a start to the financial glossary by telling the meaning of ‘deflation’. When the prices of goods and services go down, we call it ‘deflation’. ‘Inflation’, on the contrary, is the state when the prices of goods and services rise.

Do you know the meaning of ‘bull market’? In a ‘bull market’ prices normally rise and the confidence of investors gets a boost.

Well, now I am going to wind up this impromptu post by telling a technical word. A ‘CARDER’ is a person who steals credit card numbers or information related to them and earns a living. Idiot.

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Irrational protests (The Hindu)

Irrational protests


Ms Nasreen has clarified that she did not write the article, of which a ‘translation' was carried in the Kannada daily. Immediate action should be taken against the newspaper for publishing an article that was both provocative and unauthentic. Freedom of expression, undoubtedly, is a crucial aspect of journalism. But credibility is equally crucial. Regrettably, the Kannada daily ignored all principles of journalism.

It is perhaps the first instance when Ms Nasreen has not intentionally come to the limelight. The newspaper seems to have used her name.

Shadab Husain,

Lucknow

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/04/stories/2010030453930801.htm

Back to Writing

Back to Writing

It is very sweet and thrilling for me as I am back to begin writing on this blog. I am aware that you people would have got annoyed with me because there was a long silence on my part.

Nevertheless, I must tell you that the reasons behind this silence were genuine. But dear readers, don’t think that I am going to bore you by telling those reasons! So before we get on, please accept the heartfelt apologies of this small blogger for taking such a long break.

Sometimes it happens with me that all of a sudden a topic pops up in my mind and I start talking on it. To my curiosity, for the moment I am in a mood to talk about the weather.

Kindly note that ‘weather’ is (W-E-A-T-H-E-R) which relates to meteorology (the science of atmosphere). People who use screen readers tend to mix this ‘weather’ with (W-H-E-T-H-E-R) which is used with ‘or’ when there are two options.

I clarified this presuming that people like me would get confused whether I am talking about ‘weather’ or ‘whether’!

I enjoy all the seasons (often even the hated Indian summers). Mind you, in the West if you say ‘Indian summers’, it will mean "a time of warm weather which happens in early autumn." And they thoroughly enjoy it!

This idiom also refers to a successful or pleasant time of someone’s life, especially when one is very old. So we can say “Our octogenarian grandmamma is in her Indian summers because kids love and fondle her a lot.” By the way, ‘octogenarian’ refers to people who are in their eighties. Caught?

To my joy, this part of the year is my favourite because spring is on and there is a joy of change in the air. In winters I kept on craving for romance but pitiably there was no one to talk with. Anyway, I have kept my fingers crossed that in the near future I will get that special someone who will make a lovely company. A lovely green parrot. Aren’t parrots romantic?

I am not kidding you!

New plan

To carry out our day-to-day tasks it is necessary to have a general understanding of business terms. So I will post them here.

Methinks technical glossary too is something we should be updated with because many a times it happens that a word or phrase crops up here and there and we are left on guesses and ideas to find its meaning. So of course there will be some stuff on the web which would be very beneficial for you. And those who are planning to carve a niche on the World Wide Web would definitely find it amazing. ‘Carving a niche’ means making a position.

Two idiotic girls just intruded here and coloured me. Now I have to go asking how to clean this colour. Several folks are threatening me outside...getting a joyful fear! It is Holi! Happy Holi to you all!!!