Mysore/Mysuru: The book ‘Figuratively Speaking…’ was released at Chinmaya Mission Center of Mysuru on Aug. 16.

Mandya Chinmaya Mission Acharya Sri Adityananda Saraswathi unveiled the paperback edition of the book to the public. 

The e-book version was released by P. Visweswara Rau, Senior Divisional Manager, LIC of India, Mysuru. 

Swami Adityananda, in his address, spoke about the nuances of figurative language in various languages and congratulated the writer M.S. Narayana on the release of his maiden literary piece. 

Swami Dattapadananda, Acharya of Mysuru Chinmaya Mission Centre, said that it was Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda’s blessings and a divine design that the book ‘Figuratively Speaking…’ was being launched at that holy venue of Shree Datta Sannidhi.   

Dr. Vijay Sheshadri, Director and Professor, Mandya PG Centre, University of Mysore, presented a literary review of the book.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. B.V. Narasimham unveiled the writer’s personality. In his presidential address, Visweswara Rau expressed concern over the dwindling interest in literary activities in the present day youth. He complemented the writer’s multitasking abilities and urged that the writer’s literary pursuits should continue further. 

Publisher Samskruthi Subramanya stated that the book ‘Figuratively Speaking…’ will be available at leading book shops of Mysuru. He assured that the book will be made available for Bengaluru readers also. He added that the e-book version is already available on Google Play Books and Amazon Kindle.

R.S. Ganesh Prasad, who has written the Foreword to the book, compered the entire proceedings. The programme was streamed live on Facebook for a larger audience.

A Brief Description of the Book: ‘Figuratively Speaking…’ is the author’s musings on a host of topics related to the pandemic and lockdown. 

During the recent lockdown, the author has humorously recorded his thoughts in this compilation of essays which are deliberately loaded with many idioms, phrases and other elements of figurative language.

While a casual reader can have loads of fun reading these mostly lighthearted narratives, keys to the world of figurative language comes as an absolutely free takeaway. The book covers a wide range of topics that deal with various social, political, medical, cultural and even the spiritual aspects related to the pandemic and the lockdown.  The generally humorous narrative style employed through the book sometimes gets surprisingly serious and thought-provoking. 

By design, all the 34 essays in this compilation have been generously stuffed with all the elements of figurative language to the extent possible. 

Constructively using the free time that unexpectedly fell into our laps due to the lockdown, the author has made an earnest attempt to entertain both the casual reader and the English language lover through this book of somewhat unconventional genre that is crafted to tickle the funny bones of its patrons. 

For the readers with a deeper interest in figurative expressions, this book also attempts to introduce the world of figurative language, in a novel way.

The first two essays of the book have been provided with the necessary footnotes for various idioms and phrases used in them. Hopefully, these footnotes inspire the inclined readers to proactively learn more about figurative language, as they go through the rest of the essays.

Figurative speech is the tricky trade of saying a thing and meaning another. While the literal language simply states facts, the figurative language is used to convey a message in a more interesting and colourful manner. Figurative expressions go beyond plain-speak and allude to a reality different from what they apparently seem to be at the first blush. One needs to be weary of these sheep in the clothes of wolves, for figuring out the figurative language by seeing through the camouflage is not everybody’s cup of tea. 

‘Figuratively Speaking…’ can serve as a useful module for language lovers to develop proficiency in figurative language.