All Greek and Latin!

Decades ago, when we were in college, there was a student agitation. As with any unrest, it was on the verge of getting out of hand. Seniors in college tried their best to drive sense into our heads, “If the agitation continues like this, sine die ho jayega! Do you get it?”

“What did you say? What will happen?” I questioned, all puzzled. “Sine die! Sine die will happen!” the senior replied. “What is sign and die?” I asked, even more confused. “You don’t know what sine die is? Trying to act over smart, are you? Bada “phoky” ban raha hai kya?”

‘Sine die’ still did not make any sense. In the days when there was no Google baba or ChatGPT, there was no easy reference to clarify these probing doubts. But the threat of ‘sine die’ helped. We assumed sine die, to be signing one’s own death warrant. When life is threatened, discretion is the better part of valor. We went back to classes the next day. 

The following year, for the same cause, there was a repeat agitation. Classes were thrown out of gear. The ‘sine die’ brahmaastra did not work, this time around. The college authorities had no choice but to close the premises and send everyone home. Soon, a letter was dispatched to all the parents. Sitting in Mumbai, I read the letter peering over my father’s shoulder. It read, “Dear parent, we hereby inform you, that regrettably, the university is closed sine die. Please ensure that your ward does not participate in nefarious activities, that can prove detrimental to himself and his academic future.”

As father looked up with a grave expression, my reaction was instinctive, “I did not do anything! I did not do anything at all, appa! Others agitated! I simply watched!” There were 2 problems with the letter. No self-respecting young man going to college, can brook reference to himself as a “ward”. “Ward” made you look like a kindergarten kid, wearing a silly, floral shirt…with a lollipop in hand and a schoolbag over your shoulders! The kind, you would extend your hand and say, “Aye Munna! Idhar aa! Come here! Take this chocolate! Toffee ley…beta!” How can the university chancellor call me a “ward”? It wounded my self-respect to the bone.

The second problem was this reference to “sine die”. “What is ‘sine die’, Appa?” I asked. “It means that the university is closed indefinitely, with no reopening date!” father replied sternly. It was a Eureka moment. ‘Sine die’ was a simple Latin expression that meant- “without a future date being fixed”.

Anger bubbled up with this realization. They could very well have used the words “will be closed indefinitely” all along, instead of this “sine die” mumbo jumbo!  Why can’t people speak in simple English? English itself is tough to understand, and now, they confuse and confound us even more by peppering the language with Greek and Latin!

Thanks to this incident, a distaste set in…for any Latin words in English. However, the more you run, the more it pursues you. Pick up the newspaper and it says, “The supreme court has taken ‘suo motu’ cognizance of the matter”. Irritation wells up. What is suo motu? Does it mean a stout man, a “motu” in vernacular speech, a sumo wrestler perhaps?  Newspaper editorials are invariably written in Latin, or so it seems, with English words added as an afterthought. No wonder, they are unreadable. They are filled with references to “quid pro quo” and “status quo” as well as archaic expressions like “ad nauseam” and “ad infinitum”. What is worse, I recently learnt, even the simple “et cetera” is Latin!

A couple of years ago, I was at my daughter’s school for her graduation ceremony. You know how these functions go- the kind, where the new generation is extolled as the “beacon of hope for the future” and how, it is now..."their time to shine”! It ended with the expression, “carpe diem!” Everyone shouted back- “Carpe diem, Carpe diem!” So did I...all pumped up. Later, I asked my daughter, “What was that strange word towards the end? Carpe…something…kai-po-che...something?” My daughter explained, “Carpe diem means ‘to seize the moment’. It means you live in the present and make best use of the present moment! It is a Latin expression, appa!”

I squeezed my palms in exasperation! Life indeed had come a full circle!