Session 16

(This is Friday's session... Just posted today)

Welcome people to Session 16.
Without any further delay let's get to the heart of the matter straight-away.

A. Time and place:
1. Chronos - time. So chronic illnesses creep up time and again. Another eg could be that I have a chronic habit of posting sessions late. The fundamental idea is chronos when used signifies constancy, a thing happening again and again.

2. Anachronic ( ana: negative connotation + chronos). So anachronic is used to indicate someone or something OUT OF TIME OR DATE, not belonging to the time period in which it exists. Like Charles Babbage for example was said to be years ahead of his generation. Or you could even qoute Da Vinci who was intellectually centuries ahead of his era. So they were both anachronic.

3. Incongruous builds upon 'in' which like 'ana' has a negative sense, 'con' signifies with or together and the rest of the part means to agree, conform etc. So incongrous indicates something OUT OF PLACE, incompatible. Like if you were to be dressed like a hippie, you would be incongruous in an IIM interview.

4. Chronological derives from chronos and means in correct time order. If a novel is chronological, it means the events are told sequentially in the order in which they happen. I think we are all familiar with this.

5. Chronometer - chronos + metron: measurement. So it's an instrument for measuring time; especially : one designed to keep time with great accuracy. Used on ships.

6. Synchronize- Syn indicates together. So synchronize etymologically signifies timing together, to operate in unison. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/synchronize

B. Suffering and Disease:
1. Pathology - The scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences. But the root logos meaning science or study could be ignored in same cases when pathology may be used to refer to any diseased or abnormal condition. A pathologist is an expert who examines tissue and diagnoses diseases.

2. Relevant stuff - Pathos is used in a large no. of words. In most of them, there is some kind of feeling or emotion attached. Let's take them one by one.
a. Sympathetic : We know what this means, so let's just examine the roots. Sym is akin to syn meaning with or together. You feel with or for someone, you are sympathetic towards him/her.

b. Antipathy : Anti is against. So we all kind of feel antipathic towards our 'esteemed' HRD minister for the reservations introduced.

c. Apathetic : What if you feel nothing at all, indifferent towards it all. Then your attitude is apathetic. The 'a' in apathy carries a negative connotation. I guess apathetic is the word to describe Arjun Singh's attitude towards the plight of the students.

d. Empathic : NL doesn't provide us with the roots. But we surely know the meaning. When you feel so much for something or someone that you kind of identify with the situation then you are empathic.

e. Pathetic: Someone arouses pity or sympathy in you? Then he is pathetic.

f. Telepathy : (Tele-distance + pathos-feeling). A highly contentious issue. Believers in telepathy strongly believe they can communicate with people across the globe without any sort of physical intermediary or a means of communication like phone, mail etc. They say they can read the minds and know what the other person thinks. How? Even they cant explain it. The concept has a link to ESP(extra sensory perception). Personally I believe this is unadulterated bull shit. To read more about Telepathy, access the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy

I guess that's it.