Thais don't have a word for 'no'. Indians don't have a unique word for 'tomorrow'. What happens when vague words replace clarity
Another area of divergence between Thai and Hindi is in describing mental phenomena. Representation Pic
ONE OF THE EARLIEST THINGS that I realised about Thai people is that they have difficulty saying no. Before I moved here, I asked the accountant at the office where I was to work if I could leave some cash in the office safe. "Of course," she replied graciously. But a day later, my boss called me to sternly reprimand me that the office safe was not for keeping personal money.
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The accountant had simply not wanted to say 'no', so she'd said 'yes' - but then taken the matter to the top. The other reason why Thais have trouble saying 'no' is that there is no single word in Thai that translates to 'no'. The closest you get is 'mai', which translates as 'not'. The nearest equivalent to a 'no' is 'not possible', or in Thai, 'mai dai' - though in common speech you might hear 'mai' being used by itself.
As in - Is the earth flat? Not. Consider other languages that have no problem saying no directly. The USA: "Not going to happen, buddy." Or "Which part of NO don't you understand?" Jamais. Nyet. Nada. And in our own Hindi - Nahin, nahin, kabhi nahin!
Another area of divergence between Thai and Hindi is in describing mental phenomena. The seat of understanding and knowledge for a Thai is the heart. Their word for 'understand' is 'khao jai', literally 'enter the heart'. You understand something only when it has entered your heart, not your head. Christopher Moore's Heart Talk lists hundreds of 'heart' words in Thai.
Hindi has a dil and a dimag, and Bollywood clearly prefers the former to the latter, if you went just by the frequency of the word 'dil' in movie titles and songs. Unfortunately, the preponderance of dil seeps through into all aspects of national life. Dimag or clear thinking is relegated to second place. Emotions and feelings rather than clear objective thinking and science-led facts can guide matters as diverse as policy (criminalising superstition) and education (teaching so-called Vedic science).
How else do you explain a nationwide demonetisation - without considering whether the new notes will fit the slot of existing ATM machines?
WHY DOES THIS MATTER? Because the answer to the question Is the sky blue at night? is not 'Not possible', but a clear 'No'. Is human activity leading to global warming? The answer is a Yes, not a Possible or I feel it is. The willingness to act on impulse and whim rather than find supporting reason and fact has led to a national climate where someone can claim his or her feelings have been 'hurt' by someone else's preferences or lifestyle - and that would be enough reason to legislate a law, for example, that bans beef.
A statement like 'cows are sacred' is a dil-se statement, unsupported by and oblivious to facts. Beef was eaten by Hindus in Vedic times. And how sacred really is an animal that is allowed to wander the streets eating plastic out of garbage?
The Prime Minister, speaking at science conference, no less, can say that Indians in Vedic times invented plastic surgery because how else could they have fixed an elephant's trunk on the god Ganesha?
ONE OF HINDI'S ANOMALIES is that it has the same word for yesterday and tomorrow - kal. A quantum scientist might applaud saying that this fits right in with modern understanding of time as a sheet with many folds where past, present and future can co-exist. A Vedic scholar might say that in Hindu philosophy, time is an illusion and kal hua is the same as kal hoga. But that fluidity permeates Indian punctuality, alas. When you hear someone say Aap ka kaam kal tak ho jayega, you know it means 'one of these days'.
WE ARE IN A WORLD WHERE we are asked to look at words more closely because more and more they are used to manipulate our minds, our beliefs, our attitudes, and eventually our actions. The WhatsApp murders are driven by short strings of deliberately careless words that are accepted without question - and acted upon.
You can call a person 'drunk as a lord' or 'in an inebriate condition' and change a misdemeanor into a circumstance. Every time I switch on Google Maps to find directions, and hear the words: "Despite usual traffic, you will reach your destination in..." I marvel. I want to meet the person who wrote those brilliant hope-giving words. Google is not telling you that because of prevailing traffic, you're going to have a hell of a ride and be stuck on the road a long long time, but that despite it, somehow, Google is going to get you there.
That is benign mind-manipulation. Perhaps it is an innocuous one, but it's a sign of what we are drowning in today.
Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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