Session 40

1. Money

a) Penury: Means complete lack of financial resources. Dire, abject poverty. Derives from penuria.

b) Penurious should etymologically mean poverty stricken but actually is used to signify stingy, miserly mannerisms. A parsimonius person is stingy, a penurious one is doubly so.

c) Indigence: Indigent people are not penniless, they ae living in reduced circumstances, forced to undergo the type of hardships that ensue on being somewhat poverty stricken .

d) Destitution: Destitutes dont have even the means for mere survival, as such they are on the verge of starvation. A pretty downright desperate condition it is to be a destitute.

e) Affluence: Affluent people are well off financially, they give the impression that their wealth is forever increasing and hence there is no dearth of material comforts. They have large homes, costly vehicles, are members of elite clubs etc etc.

f) Opulence: Stronger,richer,wealthier than affluent people. Opulent persons have large estates,they drive around in big expensive cars(BMW, Rolls royce etc), have battalions of servants and so on and so forth. The filthy rich ones.

2. Doing and feeling

a) Vicarious: You watch the high adrelanine World Cup and you feel tired yourself although the players have done all the running and stuff. That's vicarious fatigue. You watch Nirupa Roy crying her heart out for her beloved son Vijay in movies and you go through the same agony. That's vicarious torment. You either participate and experience emotions or you can partake of emotions by being vicariously involved in another person's feeling. The perfect example of a vicarious creature that's striking me now is the character Prabaker in Shantaram.

3. Time is relative

Some insects live for a few hours or days, dogs live from seven to ten years and elephants and turtles exist almost forever. One short lived creature is the mayfly, which in greek was called ephemera. So anything short
lived or lasting for a small time is called ephemeral.

Evanescence is the feeling that lasts for a really small peiod of time before disappearing as quickly. You feel something for someone, you are about to recognize what that emotion is and then suddenly before comprehending the feeling is gone. That's evanescence for you my friend.

4. Good things in life need to be explored

a) Euphemism: Eu- good,pheme- voice. An euphemism is a word or an expression that has been substituted for another that is likely to offend.

b) Euphony: Good sound, something lilting. For me, its Mark Knopfler.

c) Eulogy: I think we are familiar with this. Basically a good speech in praise of someone.

d) Euphoria: A sense of good being, mental buoyancy and being physically well.

e) Euthanasia: Mercy killing. Been lots and lots in the news. Method of painless death inflicted on people suffering from incurable diseases.

5. Exploration of modes of expression

a) Badinage: Non malicious, half teasing, light, frivolous banter. Its not intended to wound the butt of the jokes but to rather amuse.

b) Persiflage: A close synonym of badinage. The only difference being its a trifle more derisive and mocking but still totally non malicious and harmless.

c) Cliche: Ye to aap sabko pata hi hai, kya bataun..

d) Bromide: Any dull and probably fallacious remark that is highly lacking in originality and which as a consequence convinces the listener of the total absence of perspicatity on the part of speaker. Someone says "Prepare well for GMAT, practice makes one perfect" and you retort "Make something original my boy, don't fling the old bromide at me". Twice have I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and finally today i come to know what bromide means. Wow.

e) Platitude: Very similar to a cliche or bromide but as if that the remark used wasn't original enough and so oft-repeated ad nauseam, the speaker tries to carry it off as his own creation. That's platitude for you.

f) Anodyne: Waise to medically anodyne is a drug that allays pain without curing an illness, something like morphine for instance. But figuratively it's a statement made to allay the fears and apprehensions confronted by the listener although the speaker doesn't believe in it himself. Intended to be believed by the listener. I hear it all the time "Dont worry, your bad scores are not an indicator of your true potential, dont lose heart, you'll succeed one day" and I'm like "Good one that".