Da times de AAC (are a-changin')!

IN Opinion | 20/12/2012

Dipped in Witriol

AJITH PILLAI

When The Hindu’s  readers’ editor recently cautioned those writing to the Letters to the Editor section of the paper to refrain from using ‘u’ for “you,” ‘d’ for “the” and ‘n’ for “and” he was merely advising them to write “complete sentences” and words. But, unknown to him or anyone in the publication, his December 17 column has sent the folks at Media Innovations (MI) into a tizzy. The creative juice—said to be a heady mix of orange, carrots and the mother of all fruits, Vodka—has been the sole source of nutrition ever since for the three young men who form the core of MI.

To put things in perspective, the trio at MI is design graduates who also did a course in journalism at one of the many schools set up by media organizations in Delhi. Anyway, to cut a long story short,  having survived the ravages of modern education, the three, going by the adopted names `A’, `B’ and `C’ (for easy reference and recall), set up MI in January of the year of the Lord 2012 AD. A dingy office taken on rent in a crowded South Delhi market was not quite the setting which would inspire innovation, but the young men knew success was round the corner provided they didn’t go off the edge.

In fact, things looked rather dismal till ‘A’ spotted The Hindu readers’ editor’s column on that fateful Monday morning in December. “Eureka! Eureka!” he shouted at the top of his voice making neighbouring shopkeepers wonder whether the young man had landed a job with Eureka Forbes or was trying to sell vacuum cleaners to his partners. But  ‘A’ was excited for another reason—he reckoned that if a mainstream paper didn’t want its readers to write abbreviated English there was possibly a huge multitude out there wishing to read and write in a language which was short, sweet and more importantly, saved space. “News coverage in SMS lingo,” he finally pronounced as ‘B’ began mixing the creative juice sensing that a project was in the making.

The trio’s considerable research into cellphone usage (conducted to tide over boredom when memorising Delhi’s telephone directory became tortuous) helped shape business strategy. Currently there are 950 million mobile users in the country. This figure was likely to double in the next decade given the government’s assurance that though he/she may not have access to two square meals, every Indian will have a cellphone by 2022. What this effectively means is that millions of people will also be communicating with each other through text messages which involve the extensive use of shortened words and abbreviations. “The more conservative papers won’t bite the bait. But those guys who embraced concepts like Page 3 and paid news will have the foresight to see that the future is in minimalism. You reach out to more people and consume less newsprint. Imagine an entire paper in a txt msg format!,” ‘A’ said all excited as he downed a glass of that unique creative juice.

That apart, after 48 hours on the drawing board the trio developed a draft of what they tentatively called “SMSpeak.” Here are some samples of editorial content in the “new cutting edge language of the future” which were sent to three media houses for feedback:

*Sonia: “I WR if da Oppn ‘as  ‘ad it 2EZ dis ssn o’ Parli.” (In oldspeak this would translate into—Sonia:  “I Wonder if the Opposition has had it too easy this session of Parliament”).

* PM Man S wrns of 4N hnd in prce hke (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warns of foreign hand in price hike).                    

* Vats appenin iz jus nt cric. MSD dn’t sy u ave 2MTH. @TEOTD its da gme dat matrs. (What’s happening is just not cricket. M.S Dhoni don’t say you have too much to handle. At the end of the day it’s the game that matters).

* Dilli Cop Comm v ave a ?4U. How d’ya C&G wid smuch crme ITC. U mus sho sum DD (Delhi police commissioner we have a question for you.  How do you chuckle and grin with so much crime in the city? You must show some due diligence).

* “:) an’ da wrld :) bck at U” Ash. (“Smile and the world smiles back at you,” Aishwariya Rai).

There were other expressions--some taken from established text message lingo and others meant for use in India have already been compiled. “A nu DXNRY evolving,” ‘C’ sent a text to a friend telling her about the new dictionary they were putting together.

The usual stuff made its way into the entries. Examples: CID (consider it done); AFMAIC (as far as I’m concerned); F2F (face to face); 121 (one to one) ; OATUS (on a totally unrelated subject): AWESO (awesome) and LOL (laugh out loud). Indigenous material included WLKOT (walkout); I&S (idli and sambhar); DMAK (dal makhani); CBTK (chintan baithak); NMF (Narendra Modi factor) CMCH (chamchas); HC (high command); SWD (Sonia will decide); AK-47 (Arvind Kejriwal firing on all cylinders); RST (regional satraps); QED (quite easily done); K&P (khoon aur pasina); AMT (adjournment motion); NG (netagiri) and  TTT (twit, twitter, twittest).

There are already 4,000 entries in the DXNRY and the numbers are likely to increase as the MI team is working around the clock. The idea is to have 50,000 short forms/abbreviations to make it possible to bring out a full-fledged newspaper or magazine. As for the feedback from the three media organizations which were sent the samplers, the good news is that all of them think it is a workable idea provided new subscribers are gifted a mobile that can double up as a shaver, newspaper shredder and a counselor.

In fact, one of the publications, which calls itself the leader wants to start a trial run in a year’s time. The other two who call themselves leaders through some manipulation of readership and non-readership (those who only pretend to read the newspapers to impress their children and neighbours ) figures say they will see how leader No.1’s experiment fares before taking the plunge.

Meanwhile, journalism schools are planning to launch special capsules to help students become text savvy. According to insiders, the hunt has also begun to identify those who can teach the new language and apply it to newspaper reporting. Says a senior faculty member at a leading institute: “We have heard enough about long form journalism. Let us now give the shorter version a chance. Those who have five years of intensive use of texting and who naturally write `wid’ instead of “with” are the kind of people we are looking to induct into our staff. And we NTH ASAP (need to hire as soon as possible)”. Da times de sure AAC (are a-changin’)!