For the love of language OR for the language you love!

"Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts

run and out of which they grow."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes (American author and poet)

******

I remember, some time back I was having a tête-à-tête with a friend and inevitably our conversation drifted towards ‘language’…an interest common to both of us. While in discussion, I said something, which initially didn’t strike me but later the gravity of the statement set me thinking.

I had said: You should love language as much as language loves you! The ‘love’ HAS to be mutual!

We as readers/writers/speakers may come to love language. But can one explain the condition of ‘language loving its user’?!

Sounds bizarre. But makes profound sense. Let me explain how.

You see, for effective communication, good language usage is essential. Now, quite often, the interest for language develops from within… driven by the user’s love for words! You love language, so you enjoy it! But sometimes, this is just not enough. For language to flourish, there should be something in language itself, that pulls you towards it. When I say, the language loves you... I mean that language totally attracts and fascinates you… so you enjoy it even more! It’s almost like…it draws the wordsmith within you, towards it. It wants you to embrace it and be in awe of it for what it is! In short…it wants you to be smitten by it. That...is the enigmatic power of language!

You grow as a language aficionado, only when both the above-mentioned conditions get fulfilled. When the language’s love for you is reciprocated by your love for the language, does that give rise to wonderful wordplay….whether it be written or spoken.

This outcome then, enchants everyone… everyone who understands language. Language tends to breed on people. It takes its roots from the fundamental human need to communicate… communicate by means of words. Language, quite often lends meaning to our thoughts… shapes them sensibly, so as to be easily understood. Without language, the exchange of ideas, opinions, statements etc. may not find significance. And so…as long as the human race subsists, language…in whichever form it may be… will thrive!

And thus, it will undoubtedly continue to ‘love’ and ‘be loved’… by numerous language fanatics (like myself)…across the world!

THE DAY “PURE ECSTASY” GOT A FACE!

“…I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!”
- Stephen Hawking, well-known Physicist, after his experience of weightlessness aboard a ZeroG aircraft.


“It’s the fulfilment of an amazing dream… Attitude is what determines altitude.”
- Miles Hilton-Barber, 58 yr. old blind adventurer, after touching down at Sydney’s Bankstown airport.

*****

Sometimes I wonder, what does pure ecstasy feel like?... What does pure sense of achievement feel like? These are questions that don’t find an easy answer. But a few days ago… they did get answered. They got answered in the jubilant expressions of two men… very different from each other…yet very similar in spirit.

The two men in reference here, are - world renowned Physicist, Stephen Hawking (also famous for his book, A Brief History of Time) and adventurer, Miles Hilton-Barber.

Both are individuals with some physical lacking but what sets them apart is their striking, strong spirit. The two men are extraordinary because they’ve achieved the unthinkable despite their physical disability.

Stephen Hawking is a genius and some of his path-breaking work delves around black holes and the origins of the Universe. He suffers from the Lou Gehrig’s disease (a degenerative motor neuron disease) that has kept him bound to a wheelchair for a very long time now. Having been paralyzed, he cannot enjoy the luxury of free mobility. But recently, on 27th April, 2007, he floated free from his wheelchair and experienced a remarkable thrill.

Another person who exhibited the same strength of spirit, a few days hence (29th April, 2007) was Miles Hilton-Barber, a 58-year old British adventurer. Who could have ever comprehended that a person with his lack of sight, could fly almost half-way round the world in a microlight?! The adventurer, through such endeavours, hopes to raise £1 million for the charity, ‘Seeing is Believing’, which works towards reducing the occurrence of preventable blindness in Third World countries.

Unbelievable?... Believe it!

Both of the above-mentioned individuals harbour a spirit and desire to move beyond their respective disabilities and let their souls rejoice in their triumph extraordinaire! Oh! What a profound sense of achievement, they must have experienced! The images seen above are precisely, what pure elation looks like!... Liberating…Motivating…Blissful! These images bring forth the vitality of the Human Spirit, in all it’s innocence!

And it stays thus...
… framed forever….and frozen in time!