(26) Republic of Lexicomedy.

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Dear Ms. Fussy Zaroor,

First of all, let me thank you for something rather unexpected.

Thank you for converting what had long remained my favourite childhood embarrassment into my favourite childhood anecdote.

Only a discerning Editor could perform such an elegant editorial transformation.

I had imagined I was merely writing to an Editor.

Somewhere along the way, without either of us quite noticing, I seem to have acquired a Fellow Traveller.

And I must confess that the journey has become considerably more enjoyable ever since.

Now that you have graciously accepted your citizenship in the curious Republic of Lexicomedy, I find myself at a slight disadvantage.

Through my blogs, letters and assorted mathematical eccentricities, you have come to know a fair amount about me.

The traffic, however, has been almost entirely one-way.

Permit me, therefore, a few impertinently curious questions.

How did a spirited daughter of Generation Z become so remarkably fluent in the stately cadences of the Queen's English?

At a time when so many of your contemporaries seem determined to compress an entire conversation into abbreviations, emojis, and expressions of breathtaking anatomical inventiveness, you write with a vocabulary that appears to have wandered out of a Victorian library after pausing only briefly to shake hands with a modern dictionary.

That, I assure you, is intended entirely as a compliment.

I am equally curious about the journey behind the language.

What first persuaded you that words deserved to be collected, polished and occasionally paraded?

Were you always a lexical enthusiast, or did some unsuspecting teacher, book, or eccentric relative accidentally nudge you towards this splendid affliction?

And if you are willing to indulge an ageing mathematician's curiosity a little further, I should also be delighted to learn something of your academic adventures and the family that helped shape the remarkable Lexicomedienne with whom I now have the privilege of corresponding.

Please do not mistake these enquiries for editorial interrogation.

They arise from something infinitely simpler.

Friendship.

For every correspondence eventually reaches a stage where one ceases merely to admire the letters and begins to wonder, with genuine affection, about the person holding the pen.

Yours, awaiting your autobiography with almost as much anticipation as your next correction,




Pankaj Khanna


Urban gardener, rustic cook. Music enthusiast. Curious blogger since 2009. Cyclist for over five decades. Word lover: Epeolater. Anagram addict. Punster with pen in hand, pun in mind, and a pan in the heart/hearth. Steam-engine devotee: a ferroequinophile. Avid avian watcher. Magic-square aficionado. Retired mathematics teacher and an Apprentice Lexicomedian.

(Apprentice anagram= Inept  Pacer. Lexicomedian anagram
= I am  Lexiconed.)

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Legsy Notes.

ROACHES HALL OF FAME

Citation No. 008 — The Friend of Cockroaches

The Roaches Hall of Fame is delighted to confer upon Shri Akhilesh Yadav the distinction of:

FRIEND OF COCKROACHES

When the Cockroach Community found itself facing police action at Jantar Mantar, Akhilesh Yadav publicly spoke out against the crackdown and highlighted injuries suffered by protesters.

Later, CJP spokesroach Ashutosh Ranka met Akhilesh Yadav in what was described as a thanksgiving gesture for the Samajwadi Party’s support to the CJP-backed Jantar Mantar protest.

The Roach Intelligence Bureau, naturally, took note.

The Anagram of Akhilesh Yadav is  Al Sheikh Vadya. Anagrams are like that only. Funny!

One is a political leader.
The other sounds like an enigmatic visitor from a distant linguistic kingdom, carrying ancient wisdom, a musical instrument and—quite possibly—a soft corner for cockroaches.

Al Sheikh Vadya has clearly been cleared for inter-species diplomacy.


THE ROACH VERDICT

Most humans encounter cockroaches and reach for a slipper.

Akhilesh Yadav, apparently, prefers solidarity.

Thus, the Roach Archives record the following principle:

When the roaches are under pressure, look for Al Sheikh Vadya or Akhilesh Yadav.

THE HONOUR

SHRI AKHILESH YADAV
a.k.a. AL SHEIKH VADYA

FRIEND OF COCKROACHES

May the antennae remain raised, the roach archives remain grateful, and Al Sheikh Vadya remain on the emergency contact list.

For in the grand history of inter-species relations, few humans have been formally adopted by the roaches.

Akhilesh Yadav is now one of them.

Issued by the Ministry of Roach Affairs
Department of Inter-Species Diplomacy, Anagrammatics & Emergency Antenna Relations

Legsy Suroor

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Foot Notes and Foot Prints of Pak Jan

Dear Roaches,

I particularly liked this wonderfully secular anagram of Akhilesh Yadav: AL SHEIKH VADYA. After all, he is quite the torch-bearer of Socialism in the country.

But then, take a closer look at the word SOCIALISM.

Rearrange its letters and—lo and behold!—you get:

SOCIALISM = SO ISLAMIC

How wonderfully appropriate!

The anagram seems to capture, with almost uncanny lexical precision, his particular interpretation of socialism—and, perhaps, his distinctive style of secularism.

— Pak Jan
Lexicomedy | Foot Notes & Foot Prints

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Fussy Art Gallery

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Click here for the next Episode 27

Click here for The Lexicomedy Line-Up: (The list of all Episodes published till date for your binge reading.)

(My  Blogs on diverse subjects: Eclectic Blogs.)

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