And how have you all been, O faithful readers, this lovely summer? The Man from Madras Musings (MMM) trusts that you are basking in the sunshine and working on that tan which makes all the difference. Besides, let us not forget the added bonus—Vitamin D. So go on, grab that deck chair, slather on the suntan lotion, and head for the Marina beach, my dears!

A Review and a Resolve

At his end, MMM has been hard at work as always. A recent review meeting with Madam Editor and the Lord God who oversees all things editorial went smoothly. The verdict? All is swimmingly well—except for MMM’s recurring tendency to take the occasional swipe at those in power. “These days,” said Madam Editor, “the politico’s bite is worse than their bark,” and perhaps it was time to dial it down. Thus emerged MMM, a new man, resolved to play nicer with our political overlords.

A Headline to Remember

As if on cue, the opportunity to demonstrate this newfound goodwill came swiftly. The ruling party recently marked four years in office, and to celebrate, they issued full-page advertisements in every daily. You, dear reader, may have noticed them too. MMM certainly did—and what caught his eye was a particular headline:

“Four Years of Appreciated Governance, Let It Continues For Many Years.”

Grammatical acrobatics aside, it was the rogue “Continues” that most caught MMM’s attention. Seizing the moment to practice some constructive civic engagement, MMM promptly X’d (formerly tweeted) the line, tagging both the State Government and the Hon. Chief Minister, gently suggesting that a bit of proofreading might have helped.

The Reactions Roll In

Did the Hon. CM or the government respond? No. But many others certainly did. The responses fell into three broad categories:

  1. The Cynics: “Well, what did you expect?”
  2. The Outraged: Curses flew freely—aimed at the government, the newspaper, the cosmos.
  3. The Clueless: This group truly stunned MMM. They genuinely could not see what was wrong with the sentence.

And before anyone accuses MMM of being a grammar snob picking on the less privileged, rest assured these baffled folks were not from the margins. They were from the upper crust, fluent in hashtags and high-speed Wi-Fi

Language Wars

Here are some of the memorable gems:

  • “Kindly refer. CONTINUES is right only. CONTINUOUS and CONTINUES both having different meaning.”
  • “You check your English. CONTINUES is present tense. CONTINUE is past.”

What followed online was nothing short of a linguistic battlefield. Verbal duels ensued, insults were hurled, and the original issue got buried beneath waves of grammatical chaos. MMM, having simply lit the match, leaned back and enjoyed the spectacle—chuckling especially at the even more glaring errors that flooded the comment threads.

This article appeared in Madras Musing-https://madrasmusings.com/vol-35-no-3/short-n-snappy-222/

My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered-https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/