The Dictionary
C P Aboobaker
We are going to create a dictionary
Quite a new one.
We have lost the old words
We are not able to understand their meaning
What is the meaning of
bombastic words like
liberty, democracy etc?
My little son has begun to ask.
He is rotating unaware of
the area of circle,
radius and diameter of the meters;
Now I confront an interesting question:
What is the phenomenon of language?
We must start our work before the doubts creep in to
the basic verbs and nouns.
Yesterday he called his little sister
And tied a knot on her neck;
He gradually squeezed her neck with both the hands;
I entered his room at the time he loosened one hand
And searched for something;
Her neck was red with bruises,
and her eyes had bulged
According to the old dictionary.
Her tongue was hanging out her mouth;
her nostrils were bleeding.
“ I am loving my Lilly;
If I get a knife I will further love her”,
he explains without an iota of doubt.
My elder son thinks language is a meaningless vulgarity;
Any combination of words can mean anything.
Lord Buddha means Atom Bomb;
Smile means explosion;
This would suffice for a beginning.
New words will flow now:
Osama Bin Laden means love;
Barak Obama means world peace.
Gandhiji means murder and Godse means kindliness.
Only one problem remains:
How do we get the meaning of the old words from the new dictionary?
There’s singularly one way only; and that is to use illustrations.
Painters and graphic-men and designers get ample opportunities!
Our dictionary will be a truly colorful one!
Let us make it alphabet-wise;
Inside means outside;
Intimacy means strangeness;
Kitchen means playground;
Sent in means sent out;
Freed means imprisoned
And freedom means imprisonment.
Oh, how fertile and nutritious is our new dictionary!
C P Aboobaker - C.P. ABOOBACKER, editor of thanalonline, belongs to Calicut in Kerala. His interests include writing, publishing poems, essays, and many more literary things. Latest writing is about Channels and Globalizations. He is a retired professor of history.
e-mail: cpaboobacker@gmail.com
