Funda ya Anda?

A teacher once asked his students to "close the doors of the windows" . Whatever he meant, the bemused students asked. "I mean, I am feeling all shivery because I have winter in my nose," the teacher replied.

Of course he was translating nakat sardi from Marathi, which means 'head cold' , into 'winter in my nose' ! And the verbatim of khidki-chi-dare was 'doors of the windows'!

Wags would say the teacher belonged to a wonderful, but linguistically-challenged , country called Bharat while his Anglo-savvy wards inhabited a powerful Pradesh called India! The words funda and gyan evoke a similar dichotomy . Funda, as Aamir Khan's hostelites from 3 Idiots will tell you, is slang for basics or fundamentals of understanding.

Funda also stands for something cool and awesome. Ditto for gyan: this word has one the most impressive of pedigrees in the Indian philosophical tradition. As an epithet, therefore, Gyani is a badge of honour for enlightenment . But it can also serve as a sarcastic putdown, the semantic equivalent of a smart-alecky pedant.

The great Kashmir Shaivaite text Shiva Sutra goes far beyond this in issuing a global red alert against knowledge: Gyanam Bandham; knowledge itself is the great bondage, warns the sage Vasugupta. Of course he isn't being a philistine or Luddite.

What he means is liberation from narrow I-Me sense is so radical that it shatters all language and description. But the same sage reassures the seeker that self-awareness is the essence of divinity: Chaitanyam Atma. So there is hope for all in India and Bharat!