Opinion What the bleep
Four-letter words have their say
When did you first learn that f-word? Was it from the television? From an elder sibling? Or,perhaps,a younger one? Or,from a classmate who wrote it on a paper and passed it around sixth grade. The teacher saw him. He scrunched the paper and tried to throw it out of the window. But it sat there on the ledge staring at the boy,daring the teacher. She picked it up,smoothed the creases and led the boy to the headmasters office. I was in that class. I can still feel the tension as boy and teacher glared at the offending paper ball.
We dont remember when we learned the words Amma and encyclopaedia. But four-letter words they brand themselves into memory. Taboo words,expletives,cuss words,call them what you will,but both speaker and listener react to them viscerally. They subvert authority,assert veracity and banish helplessness.
They take us back to our childhood. Cuss words in our native language elicit a far stronger emotional reaction than those in any other. The language of your dreams is the language you fight in and the language you swear in. An abuse will purge you of rage or affirm joy only when youve been told through childhood not to use it.
Words require context but expletives more so. Gaalis are seldom passed across generations and they dont cross geographical boundaries either. They live in a definite time and place. In Italy,the horns of a cuckold cause more insult than the middle finger. In Australia,never make the mistake of saying I am stuffed after a meal. Gaalis are place-specific and to understand them proves that one belongs to this place and this time.
Language makes us civilised. To speak and write clearly means thinking clearly. But to use damn is to acknowledge that sometimes language proves insufficient. Language follows rules but emotions seldom follow any they are anarchic and wilful. We feel more than we can express. And sometimes we should admit that.
This June National Geographic carried a List of Most Predictable Passwords,be it for ATMs or email accounts. While variations of 12345 and password topped the list,bleep came in at fifth place. The magazine put a star at bleep and explained,Not appropriate to publish in this magazine. Many popular passwords are vulgar. Clearly we all use vulgar words more than we wish to admit.
But one must earn the right to swear. They say to understand the Blues you must have lived a little. The same holds true of swearing. You have to have dented your new car,have met the wife of the man of your dream,have been betrayed by a friend,to be allowed to swear. It is a responsibility and a privilege and it must be earned. And must be used sparingly to have any value at all.
A movie like Delhi Belly replaced full-stops with expletives. It was hyperbolic and scatological but it was also fun. Society tells us that only gangsters,molls and fisherwomen swear; People Like Us dont. But Delhi Belly showed that just as People Like Us might suffer from diarrhoea and dry flushes,People Like Us also curse. We are really not that different. In No One Killed Jessica,journalist Meera (Rani Mukerji) swore liberally as well but in the worst way possible to establish she was the boss. She did nothing for empowering the gaali.
Swearing often serves little purpose,it simply fills in the silences of pubescent boys and girls and the potty-mouthed uses it against those younger and weaker. But it has also held its place in literature down the ages. Shakespeare remains relevant 400 years later because he best articulated the messiness of the human condition. He wrote of sex,murder and revenge and swore liberally as well. Zounds and Sblood were some of his most scandalous. Meaning Gods wounds,this was the Elizabethan four-letter word. In Gone with the Wind would the line have carried through history if Rhett Butler had told Scarlett OHara at the door,Frankly my dear,I dont give a hoot? Would we remember Philip Larkins line if it was,They mess you up,your Mum and Dad?
The four-letter word has a hallowed place in our society. It must be used with care,but it heeds our human imperfections. As loving father,Adam Mansbach sings to his son at night,in the recent Amazon bestseller Go The F to Sleep: The tiger reclines in the simmering jungle./ The sparrow has silenced her cheep./ F*** your stuffed bear… Cut the crap. Sleep.
nandini.nair@expressindia.com
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