Look at the words being bandied about around you! Much of what you hear makes your hair stand on end. This blog is about such words. Words that are not necessarily key, and which can (and do) yet open an entire civilization open for us. Mixed metaphors, I know, but there you are!
Words are never just words. They almost always mean more or less than what the dictionary says they mean. The point of this blog is to look at as many not-so-key words as possible, and see how the more or less in their meaning reflects (on) the civilization that ummm ... ok ... enGENdered them.
The reference in the not-so-key-words, of course, is to Raymond Willams' book, a very nice read, and a wonderful window into the world that ... ummm ... [ has been --> <-- we have ] pulled over our eyes. My ambition is nothing even remotely as huge as Keywords. Not-so-key words for me, methinks. No "culture" and "popular" (ibid). Anta scene ledu ... Simple words like 'forward' and 'backward' and 'new' and 'old' should suffice. Big words big "impact" (another not-so-key one, that!!); not-so-key words, chhotu impact, but telling signs definitement.
But how do I choose which word to malign, you ask, and rightly so indeed! My answer is that I hereby promise to use my own writing against me. This text shall provide the first not-so-key word, and the copious verbiage that that word shall occasion shall offer the source for the next. And so on, ad infinitum, ad libidum, and, one hopes ... ad nauseum.
Voyons alors! Dekhein kisko kyaa miltaa hai?
