Money and food are commodities together in a special league with the feature of a smaller section in the population having them in surplus quantities and the rest left craving to get at them in the face of hardship and disappointment. Is that why a flurry of idioms and proverbs have emerged in most, if…

The monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a specified period (quarterly or yearly), commonly used to determine the economic performance of a whole country (or a region such as a State) and to make international comparisons being expressed as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the share of services…

A verse sourced to the ancient widely translated Sanskrit text Panchatantra, a collection of stories featuring animals, dating back to about 300 BC and attributed to Vishnu Sharma reads Vidya Dadaathi Vinayam… (Education makes one humble…). In the context of visualising education as going to school, college and obtaining certificates as proof of being educated,…

The expression sons of the soil, used by some speakers influencing societal outlook towards sections in the local population identified as outsiders is often meant to make an impressive impression on lay people, particularly on eve of polls, as in Karnataka’s political world. Many regions of the world, particularly in the West, have witnessed the…

Likening any complex or unsolvable problem used to be expressed metaphorically as the Gordian Knot by writers in English during the days gone by. The legend on dismantling an ‘impossible’ knot dates back to the times of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The phrase Cutting the Gordian Knot has come to assume the proverb form…

Not many will believe that evolving letters for writing is traced to Ethiopia, currently rated as a country with the lowest per capita income in the world. The practice of writing on stones and subsequently on palm leaves dates back to a period as far back as one can imagine, apart from estimating. Now-all-too-familiar the…

The country and its present generation, in the august company of its preceding ageing fraternity, appear to be elated on hearing about the legacy handed down from the past, earning flattering global rating on various counts, not to recount low rating on some counts which are common knowledge of those who are avid readers of…

The Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), credited with patenting the first practical telephone and founding the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885 might have not imagined in his wildest dream that the handy device would be in the hands of almost every human being. His gratification after witnessing its…

The quote that every language is a temple in which the soul of its speakers is enshrined must serve as a diktat to all citizens of this multilingual land to not only love their respective tongues but also respect other tongues spoken by fellow-citizens. After conceding the demand for classical language status to Tamil in…

The quote Udyogam Purusha Lakshanam is believed by some to have come into existence during a past period in the country when some people chose to be idle, saying that God will look after everything, encouraging begging in the process. A person, irrespective of gender, who does not work is not considered by society as…