Should the term ¿sod¿ be permitted in print? Rudrangshu Mukherjee, edit page editor of The Telegraph does not think so, and responded sharply to Darius Nakhoowala¿s use of the word in this column:
Cricket¿s new turn
http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=2973&pg=1&mod=1§ionId=10&valid=true
Thereafter an exchange followed which we present below. Our readers are invited to join the debate over whether sod is a permissible epithet or not.
From: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
To: Sevanti Ninan ; Darius.Nakhoonwala@gmail.com
Sent:
Subject: darius¿s latest
Just read the column. Wonder if ``sod¿¿ is a permissible epithet in polite and civilized society and in formal prose. But to each his own upbringing and sense of taste.
Rudrangshu
On
Sod is a friendly epithet. I don¿t mind being called sod.
From: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
To: Sevanti Ninan
Sent:
Subject: Re: darius¿s latest
The word sod according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary is vulgar slang chiefly British and means `` an unpleasant person¿¿. Obviously neither you nor Darius Nakhoonwala know the meaning of the word. How could he know that the leader writer was an unpleasant person. It is amazing -- isn¿t it? -- how much ignorance is paraded around in
Rudrangshu
On
There is dictionary meaning, and there is meaning evolved thru usage. Sod often used as in poor sod, and poor unpleasant person does not make sense.
From: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
To: Sevanti Ninan
Sent:
Subject: Re: darius¿s latest
I am sorry in written prose I prefer to go by what the dictionary says. A newspaper or website about the media is not the same as cocktail party talk. I would never allow the word sod in an editorial or an edit page article in The Telegraph. I think people who criticise should have some standards. Obvioulsy Darius Nakhoonwala has none. His homework, as I have pointed out before, is often shoddy and in this instance his language is objectionable. I will no longer read what he writes. I have certain standards. I should add that I am surprised at your defence of his language. The F word has also acquired various connotations in usage, will you allow it too?
Rudrangshu
From: Sevanti Ninan
To: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Sent:
Subject: Fw: Fw: darius¿s latest
Dear Rudrangshu,
This is becoming quite a hilarious exchange. Stung by your comments about standards, etc. Darius has forwarded this example of Telegraph allowing the use of the word sod.
Sevanti
ME FIRST ALL THE TIME
THIS ABOVE ALL / KHUSHWANT SINGH,
Inside your heart
He marched off the stage quoting an Urdu couplet which was so touching that I memorized it immediately and got down to translating it into English:
Parvaana hoon
Shamaa to ho, Raat to ho;
Marney key leyea tayyaar hoon
Koee baat to ho
(I am a moth,
To burn myself there must be flame
And the night to do the same;
Though I am ever ready to die
But I must know the reason why.)
Now that he has no office to go to, what will Natwar do? He is not a man to retire gracefully into oblivion. He has been bitten by the Choudhry-bug: he pines to be the top man of any organization he forms. He may set up an ex-Central cabinet ministers association and have himself elected president. He could then tender unsolicited advice to successive prime ministers. He also has literary ambitions and regards himself as an authority on E.M. Forster (Passage to India).
He met him during his years in
Earlier, he wrote in a lofty tone in an article that he did not bother to read anything I wrote. However, he has an uncanny ability to guess what I had written without having read it. And let me ask: ?How can anyone hope to battle with an antaryaami ? one who knows secrets hidden in other peoples? hearts??
From: Sevanti Ninan
To: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Sent:
Subject: more
More from Darius:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html
THIS ABOVE ALL/ REAL LIFE BEGINS AT SIXTY
BY KHUSHWANT SINGH
A great gentleman and a great bore — that is how I thought of my friend of over 60 years, Danial Latifi, who died recently in Delhi. Good people tend to be somewhat tiresome and Danial was goodness personified. Having made this unkind introduction, let me also add that I vastly admired and loved him because he never lied, or ever said a hurtful thing about anyone. There won¿t be another Danial Latifi.
I got to know Danial in my years in
He was a graduate from
One night he was caught pasting subversive posters on city walls. He spent a while in jail. After release he shifted to the party headquarters. He lived on daal-roti. He was always lean and fragile; he became leaner and frailer; his long nose appeared longer — he had a vulpine profile. I persuaded him to move in with me. I had reason to regret my offer of hospitality.
Every morning as I sat down to enjoy my whiskey, Danial, who was a teetotaller, would start an endless monologue on Marxism, class struggle, imperialism et al. It ruined the taste of my good Scotch. One day when my cook and I were away, my mother turned up unexpectedly. She took Danial to be my servant, reprimanded him for sitting on the sofa and ordered him to get her luggage from the
He did so without a word. When my mother discovered who he was, she was most embarrassed. He often teased her about it. It was in my flat that he met Sarah Itiyarah, a Syrian Christian teacher in Kinnaird college for women and as ardent a communist as he.
They fell in love and got married. Danial would often smile but rarely laugh. Sarah did neither. They were admirably suited to each other. The only thing they had in common was a passion for Marxism. They had no children. After Partition, the Latifis moved to
He got me a spy glass to put in my door so that I could see the visitor and if I did not want to be seen I need not open the door. Danial was the first victim of his own gift.
Danial did not change except that he began to drink in modest quantities. Once I ran into him at a French embassy reception. He had a plateful of food in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. By then he had become quite an authority on Islamic law. I made the mistake of asking him how he reconciled imbibing liquor with Islam.
He proceeded to dilate at great length quoting verses from the Quran that the holy book did not forbid taking alcohol. And all this while we were being jostled and buffetted by the crowd milling around us.
Danial and Sarah did not live together very much. So when she died, he was not shattered. He was not designed for domesticity. So I was surprised when I heard a few years ago that he had married again — this time a princess of royal blood, a descendant of the great Mughals.
From: Sevanti Ninan
To: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Sent:
Subject: and more
And more…
Here lies one who spared neither man nor God/Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod/Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun/Thank the Lord he is ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1050212/asp/weekend/story_4348691.asp - 24k - Cached - Similar pages
... Lata Mangeshkar from the S-J camp, she also broke away the hyphen from between the great music director duo, ringing her voice around Shankar, poor sod. ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1060428/asp/etc/story_6143844.asp - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
www.telegraphindia.com/1050826/asp/calcutta/story_5147506.asp - 35k - Cached - Similar pages
One way of getting over feeling inadequate is to go, ¿Sod it... and just do it" — on her nude photoshoot for the Vanity Fair cover. ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1070913/asp/entertainment/story_8313129.asp - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
If there¿sa riot in my area,/ Why then I¿m sure to get malaria;/ And when some Muslim seeks the blood/ Of Hindus all because some sod/ Has gone and tweaked ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1070428/asp/opinion/story_7706992.asp - 35k - Cached - Similar pages
Her daughter is devastatingly dejected and her grown up son, a lazy sod. In sum, they live. But they do not have a life. And then suddenly, when tragedy ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1060923/asp/weekend/story_6751458.asp - 27k - Cached - Similar pages
Now the "lecherous old sod," as
www.telegraphindia.com/1040224/asp/atleisure/index.asp - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
The old sod who was then in residence in King?s College and was consorting with his lover, a
www.telegraphindia.com/1051231/asp/opinion/story_5660965.asp - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
The mother of a GMR institute student who was allegedly sod ... | Read.. ¿I¿ll never feel safe again¿. Thirty-seven-year-old Abhishekh Abdul Hamid was saved ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1060911/asp/nation/index.asp - 43k - Cached - Similar pages
Is there anyone amongst you who is not familiar with Sod?s law? ... It is Sod?s law that dictates that the moment you go in for a bath, the telephone will ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1050308/asp/atleisure/story_4451585.asp - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
To end your meal on a sweet note, indulge in the Chocolate Kao Gap Strawberry Sod (white chocolate and strawberry parfait with caramel sabayon) or Polla Mai ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1050429/asp/calcutta/story_4669837.asp - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
For dessert, indulge in Ngow Ice Cream Krati Sod (rambutan served with homemade coconut ice-cream). Pocket pinch: A meal for two would cost Rs 1800-plus. ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1061116/asp/calcutta/story_7004899.asp - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
Requiem for a loveable sod. A great gentleman and a great bore — that is how I thought of my friend of over 60 years, Danial Latifi, who died recently in ...
www.telegraphindia.com/1000703/editoria.htm - 48k - Cached - Similar pages
From: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
To: Sevanti Ninan
Sent:
Subject: sod
It is typical, I think, that quietly the terms of the discussion has been shifted. I was speaking of The Telegraph¿s edit page and the leaders. The examples that Darius has so diligently dug out are all, save two. from other parts of the paper to which my standards are irrelevant. The two that are from the edit page come from the pen of Khushwant Singh whose column as per the agreement one is not allowed to touch. Moreover, in one instance where the word is used to describe E.M.Forster, the usage is correct (but still not accepetable to me). The word sod, according to the dictionary (Shorter Oxford) has been used since 1880 as an abbreviation of sodomite. (Hence the phrase sod off as an alternative to bugger off). Forster as one knows was one of the most famous gays of
Rudrangshu
From: Darius Nakhoonwala
To: Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Cc: Sevanti Ninan
Sent:
Subject: Re: darius¿s latest
Dear Dr Mukherjee,
I am sorry if I have offended you. Mrs Ninan also told me that you were upset and had promised to stop reading my comments. Please don¿t. you are one of the best in the country, and i would hate it just as much as I would if I lost someone such as say, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan or Swapan Dasgupta who are just as good, at least as columnists. of their leader-writing abilities, though, I know zilch (if I may use that vulgar Americanism).
With all good wishes and thanks for pointing out my error,
Darius
