Allô Chatrath

  I joined service over 55 years back. Mr. M.G.Pimputkar, ICS, was then the Director of the Mussoorie Academy. At that time ‘ le mot juste’ or the right expression in passing orders was given great emphasis, so much so that the Director himself used to take a class on this. I remember he advised as to read the book “ The Complete Plain Words” written by Sir Ernest Gowers. He suggested that we use use simple English and keep the sentences short. There have been developments since then. American English became popular and confused us about the use of ‘s’ or ‘z’, for example.   And there was the craze to write like the reports of World Bank, IMF and the UN. Then came Dr. Shashi Tharoor on the scene and we got over-awed and entangled in unheard of words. This was before the debut of Artificial Intelligence assisted drafts and reports.   But by now a number of words and expressions, which in the beginning looked bizarre have already become a part of our normal way of exp...

  Those of us who travel between Chandigarh  and Delhi  by road would remember having seen a number of dhabas outside the Ambala Cantt. railway station. They have different names but one part of the name is common and that is "Puran Singh". So you have "Puran Singh Ka Asli Dhaba', "Puran Singh Ka Mashoor Dhaba", "Puran Singh Ka Purana Dhaba'  etc. etc. I tried this simple menu at one of these  dhabas sometimes back and I remember that food was tasty and light on the purse....

I have come across the work of a brilliant artist on the internet. He is Spanish artist German Aracil, who was born in Alicante. In 1985 he began his studies at the San Carlos School of Fine Art in Valencia, Spain. Aracil's first one-man show was held in his home town of Alicante, followed in 1990 by exhibitions in New York, Miami, USA. Subsequently, German Aracil has exhibited his work with great success in Spain, Portugal, Japan, Germany, France, South America and the USA. Here is a little peek into his work.  

  I came across an interesting expression today-'ghosting'. For those unaware, ghosting is the act of a friend or potential love interest abruptly stopping all communication with you without giving a reason.

                                                 I have not seen a prettier photo of this "Pretty Woman"

 

The Panteón Civil de Dolores is the largest cemetery in Mexico and contains the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres. It is located on Avenida Constituyentes in the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City, between sections two and three of Chapultepec Park. I visited it in 2012 just day after the Celebration of the Day of the Dead.    

  Mexico is officially known as the United Mexican States. Mexico is the 11th most populated country in the world. Mexico is the 14th largest country area wise.The national symbol of Mexico is the Golden Eagle. Mexico introduced chocolate, chilies and corn to the world.                                                              Indicative map of Mexico Mexican children receive their Christmas gifts on January 6th, the day on which the arrival of the Three Wise Men is celebrated in Mexico. Mexico is situated in the "Ring of Fire," one of the Earth's most prominent earthquake and volcano zones. Mexico City is built over the ruins of an ancient Aztec city called Tenochtitlan. Since the ci...

  An indicative map of Mexico.

 I visited the Mexican Anthropological Museum in Mexico City in 2018. I have had the occassion to visit many museums the world over. I would have no hesitation in rating this as one of the best that I have visited. What impressed me greatly was that most of the articles on display belong to the Mesoamerica region itself, unlike some highly spoken of museums of Europe and USA which have profited at the expense of looted treasures of poor countries.  Let me try to link it to the subject of the current article which is about Maya codices.  These codices (singular codex ) are folding books written by the pre-Colombian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark paper. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of deities such as the Tonsured Maize God and the Howler Monkey Gods. Most of the codices were destroyed by conquistadors and Catholic priests in the 16th century. And the small portion that esc...