Saturday, October 4, 2008

cackling of geese saved my english

English is by far the most expressive of languages..even in comparison to some very sweet and soft languages of our country. In our country ironically you could face the peril of being dubbed as an illiterate if you dint have your English right...

I had the privilege of going to village schools till my primary education.Unlike the current day kindergarden schools class one started with slates and graduated to pencil and paper only in later years.......English was taught in slow motion emphasis being on the vernacular....my first lessons in English were administered to me by my mom who herself never went to a school but her tutor came home and taught her up to 7 Th standard...such luxury doesn't exist anymore no matter how much we may wish to....
Not withstanding the profound foundation that I had in English I made earnest efforts to improve my English in my formative years....soon i was acclaimed as a good student of English. This transformation in schooling years was largely attributable to my exposure to Dickens,Dumas and Hardy ....and the literary like.

Almost past my midlife...lazing on a Sunday noon I cursorily picked up a book of Wren and Martin and flipping through the first few pages decided to take random test of the first exercise on SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.

The first question was to identify subject and predicate of the sentence "CACKLING OF GEESE SAVED ROME"...I decided after much deliberations that Rome was too important not to be the subject and cackling of geese to be the predicate..it was an abject mistake as I realised from the key provided with the book....my ego so high was burst like a balloon pricked by a pin.....I realised it's never too late to be grammatically right......I revisited the correct definition of a subject and a predicate in all humility.....on a lighter note..cackling of geese saved my English..and I began to read English grammar afresh from page one......thank you scorpigel it's cackle.....