Shashi Tharoor surely has a wide vocabulary. And his vocabulory is obscure to several. The walking-talking thesaurus often throws in words on Twitter forcing us to sprint for a dictionary.
Well, now the Congress MP has a new set of words for us to figure out.
Tharoor had lauded author Chetan Bhagat for his piece on PM Modi's governance, coronavirus pandemic and the consequent negative GDP growth.
“Superb piece by @chetan_bhagat on all that ails our country & what we should do about it. Chetan’s great virtue is the simplicity and directness of his writing. His message is clear & I hope his fans in the government act on it,” Tharoor tweeted.
Well, who does not want to be praised by Tharoor. Bhagat too was on cloud nine after the MP's comment. The author tweeted, "Ok I still can’t get over this. The @ShashiTharoor has praised @chetanbhagat. I am floating. Just one request sir, next time can you use some big words to praise me, like ones that only you can do. Superb is nice but a big one would really make my day!"
He requested the Congress MP to use some big words next time he praises him. Words that only he can use. Little did he know that he'd get a response immediately.
"Sure, @chetan_bhagat! It’s clear you are not sesquipedalian nor given to rodomontade. Your ideas are unembellished with tortuous convolutions & expressed without ostentation. I appreciate the limpid perspicacity of today’s column," Tharoor responded promptly.
Are you running for a dictionary already? Don't worry. Let's decode this for you.
Here's what the Congress MP meant put in simpler words:
Sesquipedalian - long-winded
Rodomontade - boastful
Convolutions - meaninglessly complex
Ostentation - pretentious
Limpid - clear
Perspicacity - shrewd
In his article, he urged the youth of the nation to put down their phones and ask the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government 'questions about economy'. Bhagat's criticism comes after India's April-June quarter GDP contracted by a massive 23.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY). This was the first GDP contraction in more than 40 years.
“The youth is busy in their phones, lost in their cheap 4G data packs, watching silly videos, playing video games, consuming porn and maybe fighting with people on social media all day. It’s all useless stuff,” Bhagat said and added that the youth needs to shut the phone and rise.
Bhagat also took a jibe at the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her “Act of God” statement. Sitharaman had said, “This year we are facing an extraordinary situation. We are facing an act of God where we may even see a contraction.” She was referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ‘2 States’ author wrote, “If we continue to hold the fatalistic belief that ‘God created the problem, God will only fix it,’ well, it won’t be fixed. God gave us all a brain, which can be used to figure out solutions to get out of a problem.”
