Every religion claims superiority (‘shreshtha) over others and is antagonistic towards them.
Libido: a person’s sexual energy (‘kamecha’)
Cohabit: if two people, especially a man and a woman who are not married, cohabit, they live together and have a sexual relationship. (‘sahwas’; ‘pati-patni ki tarah rehna’)
Married or cohabiting couples are also more likely to find that financial problems affect their libido.
Staunchest: [staunch] firm loyal and dependable in opinion and attitude. (‘kattar’; ‘pakka’; ‘dhridh-nischayi’)
Among his staunchest supporter is Advani, mow deputy PM, who tells us that Modi is the best of India’s chief ministers.
Dia-bolic: adj of or like a devil; clever and evil (‘kroor’)
Diabolical: (infml) very bad : a diabolical liberty (ázaadi’) ie an act that one resents (‘pasand na karna’) very much. Diabolically adv (kroor, apriya)
Strand:strandy shore of a lake, sea or river; [esp passive] cause (sth) to be left on the shore and unable to return to the sea; cause to go around; any of the threads , wires etc twisted together to form a rope or cable; lock of hair; line of development (in a stores) etc (‘kinara’; samundra tat’; ‘lat’; ‘rassi ya taar’phansa kar chodh dend, dhansa dena)
The strands of the diabolical planning could include communalizing the election scene in the Jammu region in the hope of fostering poll-eve-internal violence so that polling in the coming rounds may be disturbed/postponed or be held in the shadow of the gun-this time of the security forces.
Purport: [sing] (of sth) (fml) general meaning or interaction (of sth); (fml) be meant to seem (to be); claim or pretend. (ábhipray’; árth’; ‘dawa karna’; ‘lakshya hona’)
These excerpts (údhh-ran’) do not purport to be a record of the proceedings.
Hem-line: lower edge of a dress or skirt (‘poshak ki lambai’; ‘vastra ka neechla kinara’)
How high can the hemline go in west Bengal schools? Believe it or not, but that’s what the “progressive” (‘pragatisheel) leftists (vaam panthi) in west Bengal are reduced to debating.
Retrograde: adj (fml) going backwards; getting worse; returning to a less good condition. (‘peeche jane wala’; ‘patan hona’)
The minister says there is nothing retrograde about the move, and wants to convene (ékatra karna’; áayojit karna’) a meeting of the heads of educational institutions to explain the matter to them.
Torso: main part of the human body, not including the head, arms and legs; trunk , statue of this part of the body only (‘dhad’/dhar ‘’dhad pratima)
However you can’t accuse (‘dosh/ilza lagana’) the leftist of gender bias. Tight trousers and jeans , torso hugging lycra T-shirts and sleeveless vests (‘baniyan; ‘bandi’) would be a no-no for boys as well.
Tantrum:outburst of a bad temper, esp in a child (‘jhallahat’; çhidchide-pa n ka daur’)
Despite sharma’s little tantrum, his breakfast was the two-course fare that’s served to all others in custody bread and tea.
Fore: front part (of a ship) situated in front part of the vehicle; adv- in at or towards the front of a ship or aircraft. In (golf) shout given to warn people that a player is about to hit the ball. (idm be/ come to the fore- be /become prominent or important; fore and oft at the bow (front) and stern (back) of a ship; (of sails) set lengthwise on a ship or boat. (galhi’aage ka’samne)
Anju had a very good leadership qualities, which came to the fore whenever she looked after the reporting unit while I was away.
Quantified: express or measure the quantity of (sth). Aunatifiable adj quantification (‘pariman nirdharit karna)
Subsistencemeans of) subsisting –subsist (on sth) (fml) (continue to) stay alive, esp with little food or money ; exist (‘nirwah’; ‘gujar basar’)
The army cut off the water and power supply to mount pressure on the terrorists. Interrstingly, the judiciary also intervened. It quantified the subsistencde food and water which could be given to those holed inside the crime.
Barb: point of an arrow, a fish-hook, etc curved backwards to make it difficult to pull out; hurtful remark (‘kanta’; ‘dansh’aakri)
BJP defends PM against VHP barb.
Perjure: oneself (law) tell a lie (esp in a court of law) after one has sworn an oath to tell the truth; per-jurer (law) person who has perjured himself; perjury (law) action of perjuring oneself.
Lady Mary Archer , wife of the novelist Lord Jeffry Archer has been sentenced (saja) to jail for perjury.
Snobbish: adj (derog) of or like a snob ie a person who pays too much respect to social position and wealth , or who despises people of a lower social position , person who feels he has superior tastes knowledge etc [snobbishly snobbishness] (‘nak chadha’; ‘dambh bhara’)
Delhi police officials are also using his “snobbishness”to “break him down”.
Plethora: (fml) quantity greater than what is needed; over abundance (‘bahulta’; ‘prachurta’)
Conceal: sth /sb (from sb/sth) keep sth/sb from being seen or known about; hidde sth /sb (çhipana’)
Glee: (at sth) feeling of a great delight which makes one (want to) laugh, caused by sth good experienced by oneself, or sth bad that happens to sb else. (‘prasann-ta’; ánand’’teen ya adhik manushyon ka milkar gaya gaya geet)
“we have got a plethora of evidence against him and will confront (‘samna karna’’muqabla karna’) him slowly”, says a senior police officer, with barely concealed glee.
Colossus:statue much larger than life size; person or thing of very great size, importance, ability, etc (‘bahut bada vyakti ya vastu’çolossus personality= mahapurush)
The frail (‘kamjor’; ‘durbal’) and gentle Gandhiji, who walked like a colossus in the world, meanwhile, serves as a genuine role model elsewhere. Does it not call for introspection? (átm-chintan’; átm-manthan’)
Catastrophe: sudden great disaster or misfortune [catastrophic; -adj catastrophically adv] (‘durgati’; ‘pralay’)
As the Bhopal gas catastrophe demonstrated (‘pramanit’), even the loss of thousands of lives bring no accountability (úttar-dayitva’; ‘jawab-dehi’)
Whet: [tt] (fml) sharpen (the blade of a knife , an axe, etc), esp by rubbing with a stone; excite or stimulate (one’s apetite, desire, interest, etc) (‘tej karna’; ‘dhaar karna’; úttejit karna’’badha dena’)
Death and destruction , even by callow (ánubhav-hin’), calculated design’does not engender (‘paida karna’janm dena’; úttpan karna’) bipartisanship but rather whet cut-throat electoral politics.
Wrath: (fml or dated) extreme anger (prachand kroadh)
Atal Behari Vajpayee lives up to the Biblical (‘bible sambandhi) adage (lokokti’kahavat’muhavra’) “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath”.
Threadbare:adj (of cloth, clothing, etc) worn thin; shabby; too often used or too well known to be effective; hackneyed (‘taar taar’; ‘phatichar’; ‘phata purana’; ‘ghisa pita’)
Wallow: (about/around) (in sth) lie and roll about in mud, water, etc; take pleasure (in sth); indulge oneself; act of wallowing; place where animals go to wallow (‘lotne ka sthan’; ‘jaanwaron ke lautne ka bana hua sthan’)
Naïve: adj natural and innocent in speech in behavior; unaffected, (esp derog) too ready to believe what one is told; credulous; showing lack of experience, wisdom or judgement. Naively (also navely) adv (ánubhav hin’; ‘saral’; ‘bhola’; ‘buddhu’)
Naivety: also naivete : quality of being naïve; naïve remark, action, etc (‘saral’; ánubhav-heenta’)
The increasingly daring terrorist strikes (humla), however, have worn even Vajpayee’s patience threadbare (taar taar). This is apparent from the manner he stirred upto to make some public comments in recent days. These comments suggest he is drawing the right conclusion even if he still wallows in some naivete.
Despot: ruler with unlimited powers, esp a cruel and oppressive one; tyrant (‘shakti shali kroor raja’; ‘tanashah’)
The next door despot , Pervez Musharraf , and his fellow generals thinks that India’s patience in inexhaustible , (ánant’) even if the patience outwardly (‘dekhne me’; ‘bahar se’) has worn thin.
Flagrant: adj (usu of an action) particularly bad , showing and obvious [flag rantly] adv (‘ghor’; ‘jwalant awhelna’; ‘khullam khulla’)
Moreover, since December 1988 when the UN’s inspection teams left Iraq because of the regime’s attempt to impose (thopna, ladna) unacceptable conditions in flagrant defiance of the UN, the Iraqi regime has been free to pursue its development of weapons of mass destruction (‘vinash’)
Lambaste: (infml) hit (sb) hard and repeatedly; thrash, reprimand (sb) severely (áalochna karna’; ‘buri tarah se fatkarna’)
Exasperation: state of being exasperated (rosh’; ‘kroadh)
India needs players who will show enthusiasm on the field not exasperation and that are where two seniors like Srinath and Kumble may have to miss out.
Consternation:surprise and anxiety, great dismay (ghabrahat’; ‘vyakulta)
There was panic (‘khalbali’) in a village called chopra in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district and consternation all over the country when an unidentified aircraft dropped an object into a pond, turning its water pink.
Ify: (also fy) suff make or become (karna ya banana)
Star’s iffy (‘sandeh purn’; ‘vivadaspad’ show at film festival
Drove: pt of drive; herd of cattle, flock of sheep, etc being made to move from one place to another; (usu pl) moving crowd of people or large number of things (‘jhund’)
Drover: person who moves cattle, sheep etc in the market or to new pastures (‘gadediya’; çharwaha’)
Pasture: (piece of) land covered with grass and similar plants, suitable for grazing (çhara gah’; çharna’) animals; grass etc growing on this land; put animals to graze in a pasture (çharagah’; çharana’)
If anyone thought the stars would descend (‘neeche utarna’; ‘dhalna’) in droves, on the country’s show piece (uttam pradarshan vastu) celluloid (‘kach-kada) carnival (tyohar), they must feel terribly (‘bahut jyada’; ‘bhayanakta se’) let down (‘neeche karna’; ‘nirash karna’)
Adjutant: army officer responsible for administrative work in a battalion (‘paltan’; ‘sena ki rejiment ka ek bhag’) [adjutant general: high ranking administrative officer in the army] (‘sena ka ek uch adhikari’; ‘dandpal’)
Echelon:level of authority or responsibility ; rank in an organization; step-like formation of troops, aircraft, ships, etc (upadhi star)
While the nation was being told not to make an issue of the failure to keep the stable door closed, the adjutant general of the Indian army made the demand for a raise in the high altitude (únchai’; úncha sthan’) allowance (‘bhatta’; çhooth’’vritti) for the lower echelons of troops (‘sainya dal’) (something blackballed (a-svikar karna’; ‘ke virrudh matdan karna) by the top army brass (úch adhikari) 20 years ago).
Empathy: ability to imagine and share another person’s feelings, experience, etc; ability ti identify oneself mentally (‘mansik roop se’) with eg a work of art that one is looking at, and so to understand its meaning. (‘sahanubhuti’)
Undoubtedly, (beshak) the working conditions of our security personnel across the spectrum (‘vistrit shreni’) needs to be handled with a large measure of empathy.
Equipoise: balanced state, esp of the mind; equilibrium (‘shantulan’), thing that counter balances.
The strain (‘tanav’; áthak prayas’;’’nasl’) of deployment (‘tai-nati’) under constant threat does tend to show up in ever increasing instances (áwastha’; údaharan) of uniformed men losing their mental equipoise and going berserk (‘bahut uttejit ya kroadhit’; ‘pagal’)
Alacrity: (fml or rhet) prompt and eager readiness. (‘tatparta’; ‘josh’)
Milieu: (usu sing) social surroundings; environment (‘vata-varan’; ‘pari-vesh’)
The alacrity with which the demand for parity (‘samanta’; ‘sam-mulyata’) in allowances wsas between the NSG and the rest of the military milieu from which they have been drawn is an indicator (‘suchal’; ‘sanketak’) of a latent (áprakat’; á-viksit’) disgruntlement (‘mood kharab karna’) that was waiting to surface. (‘dikhai dena’; ‘prakat hona’)
Ostler: man looking after horses at an inn (‘dharamshala’; ‘sarai’); stableman (‘sais’; ‘ghode ki dekh bhal karne wala’)
Latent: adj [esp attrib] existing but not yet active, developed or visible.
Disgruntled: adj (at/about sth); (with sb) resentful because sth has happened to displease one.
Raison d’etere: [sing] (French) reason for a justification of sb’s /sth existence. (udeshya’; ástitva ka karan’)
That is the manner it handed Gujarart as a raison détre to an enemy to open a new front for its proxy war.
Quintessence: [sing] the of sth (fml) essential part of (a theory, speech, condition, etc); perfect example of (a quality) quintessential; quintessentially (‘sabse mahatva purn lakshan’; ‘sarvo-krisht udahran)
“I see Bharat, Our country in him. He is the quintessential Indian”.
Bete noire: (French) person or thing that one particularly dislikes (‘napasand vyakti’)
It is a sour irony (‘vidambana’) of this society that Dalit Leader and UP chief minister Mayawati should move towards consolidating (‘thosh hona/karna’; ‘mil jana’)her spectacularly (áalishan dhang se’; á-sadharan roop se’)opportunistic (‘samaya-nu-warti’) alliance with the BJP, the quintessential party of her bête noire manuwad.
Ostracize: (fml) exclude (sb) from a group, club, etc; refuses to meet, talk to (‘bahish-krit karna’; ‘nish-kashit karna’)
Filthy: adj (ier, iest) disgustingly dirty, obscene, (infml) (esp of a weather) very unpleasant; idm filthy lucre: (derog) money or financial gain (‘bahut hi kharab’; áshlil’)
The fair price shop ostracized them. The local mechanic wouldn’t repair their bicycle. Filthy abuses greeted them everywhere.
Derelict: adj deserted and allowed to fall into ruins; dilapidated (‘toota-foota’)(‘jirn’; ‘nasht-pray’; áwara-vyakti’)
Dereliction: being derelict (‘laparwahi’)
Dereliction of duty: (fml) (deliberate) failure to do want one ought to do.
The police took no action – a clear case of dereliction of duty in a cognizable offence.
This violence (hinsa) has a well defined purpose: to keep the lowly (‘deen heen’; ádhin’) in their place, the hindu hierarchy (pad-sopan) secure, and conditions for rapacious economic and social exploitation intact ((ákhand’ákshat’)
Travesty: (of sth) absurd imitation (ánukaran’; ‘nakli’) of or inferior substitute for sth; (tied) make or be a travesty of (sth) (‘majak, has-yaspad ya ghatiya pratiroop’)
But so long as the law’s guardians, driven by parampara make a travesty of it, the Dalit’s struggle for elementary human dignity will face heavy odds.
Bloomers: short loose trousers gathered at the knee, formerly worn by women for games, cycling etc. (salwar)
“bloomer galore in NCERT text books”
propitiate: (fml) win the favor or forgiveness of (sb esp when he is angry) by a pleasing act; appease (‘santusht karna’; ‘shant karna’) or placate (‘manana’shant karna’) (‘kisi nazar aadmi ko mana lena’)
in a gruesome (‘kurup’; ‘vibhats’) incident (‘hadsa’’vaardaat’’ghatna’) , a seven year old boy was kidnapped and sacrificed (bali dena) in Orissa’s Dhenkanal district to propitiate Goddess (‘devi’) Kali.
Amity: friendly relationship between people or countries. (‘bhaichara’; mitra-ta’, ‘sau-hard’)
Brethren: (arch except when used of or by certain religious groups ) brothers (‘bhaiyon’)
Amity in troubled times
Viking: (in the 8th to 10th centuries) Scandinavian warrior (yodha) and pirate (samudri daaku) who settled in parts of N and W Europe, including Britain
Befall: (áa padna’) (‘scandeniwai jaldasyu)
The same fate has befallen Trurth, Love & A little Malice.
Bawdy: adj (ier, iest) amusing in a coarse (‘ganda’; áshlil’) or indecent (áshlil’; ‘bhadda’) (‘fuhar’; áshlil varta-laap’; ‘bawdy house= veshyalay)
I never met another man with such an inexhaustible fund of bawdy jokes.
Exigency: (often pl) (fml) (condition of) urgent need or demand; emergency ,[exigent: requiring immediate action, urgent] (áawyashakta’; ‘sanksat kaal’)
North Eastern states have been asked to immediately inform the IAF headquarters in upper shilling in case of any exigency related to air defence.
A Los Angeles jury on Friday ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay a record $ 28 billion in punitive damages to a 64 year old woman suffering from terminal lung cancer.
Girlie: (also girly) adj [attrib] (often derog) containing (‘kamotejjak’) pictures of young women.
Haunch: (usu pl) fleshy part of the buttock and thigh. (‘raan’; ‘prishbhag’)
Hagiograohy: writing about the lives of saints ; biographical writing that is too full of praise for its subjects. (‘sancharitra lekhan’)
When writing on a legend like Yash Chopra, there is always a danger of ending up with a hagiography.
Sped: moving along or go quickly
They thrashed the woman’s male companions and sped off with her.
Sleight of hand: (idm) great skill in using the hands in performing conjuring (‘jaadu ka khel’) tricks, etc (‘haath ki safai’)
Inducement: (to do sth) that which persuades ; incentive, bribe; bribery (‘pralobhan’; ‘protsahan’)
What is missing from the sleight of hand by Tamil Nadu government in improvising (tatkal taiyar karna’kaam chalau prabandh karna) a legislation to disarm (‘hathiyar chin lena’; ‘shant kar dena’) conversions by fraud, force or inducement, is the element of surprise.
Forestall: act before (sb else) so as to prevent him from doing sth (pehle se nivaran karna)
Fanfare: short ceremonial piece of music, usu played on trumpets. (‘dhum-dhaam’)
Assuming that conversions need to be forestalled there really is no practical need to create a fanfare on this issue.
Contrive: (fml) plan (sth) cleverly, deceitfully; invent; design; manage (to do sth) inspite of difficulties (ýukti nikalna’; úpay nikalna’; ‘banana’)
Contrived: adj (derog) planned in advance rather than being spontaneous or genuine; obviously invented; not life like (‘jeeta jagta’) (‘kaalpnik’; á-wastavik’)
But is there a problem? What are the ground realities? for all the amities contrived and unleashed by the hindu community that the minorities are out to wipe out (‘puri tarah se nasht hona’; ‘saaf hona’; ástitva mita dena’) hinduism from the land of its birth.
Allure: tempt or attract (sb) by the expectation of gaining sth; attractiveness, charm (áakarshan’; ‘maya’, ‘lubhana’)
Any law that bans conversion by allurement or force affects freedom to propagate (‘failana’; ‘prachar karna’; ‘praj-nan karna’) one’s religion.
Narcissism: (psychology) abnormal and excessive love or admiration for oneself- narcisstic (adj) (átm-moh’)
Irascible: adj (fml) (of a person) easily made angry (çhirchira’; ‘kroadhi’)
Rascal: (‘dusht’; ‘durjan’; ‘shararti’)
Salman may be an irascible rascal.
Squabblewith sb) (about/over sth) quarrel noisily (as children do), esp over unimportant matter; nloisy quarrel over something unimportant. (tut u main main’; ‘takrar karna’; ‘baal ki khaal nikalna’)
Kashmir squabble at India EU meet.
Deign: (something derog or ironic) be kind or gracious enough (to do sth); condescend (‘kripa dikhana’)
How his holiness (‘sant’; ‘pavitra-ta’) arrived at the conclusion (‘nis-karsh’) he did not deign to reveal (‘batana’; ‘dikhana’; ‘’prakat karna’)
Oblivion: state of forgetting; state of being unaware or unconscious; state of being forgotten. (‘gum-naami’; ‘behosh’)
