Lightning Strike

The other day there was some problem with the South West trains in London.

The announcement said, due to lightning strike there is no electricity hence South West trains from Waterloo are not running. Customer are requested to board the trains at Wimbledon or Richmond blah blah blah.

Knowing the reputation of London rail network, I was left wondering if the lightning strike meant that a natural disaster had occurred due to the rains, thunder and lightning lashing London that day or if there was a lightning strike by the rail workers that provide electricity to the tracks.

With London you never know, it could have very well meant the latter.

Are you waving a dead chicken?

This is my phrase of the day.

I just found out what to "wave a dead chicken" means.

As per wikipedia it is, to make a token effort (wave a dead chicken) which one knows will ultimately be completely useless but must be done nonetheless so others are satisfied that enough effort has been used to try and fix the problem.

As per wikipedia, this has been taken from the Free Online Dictionary of Computing. Now we know, when companies come and say we are fixing your problem with the software, they are just waving a dead chicken at us.

Words words...

I was looking through AskOxford, the online version of Oxford dictionary and came across a section dedicated to the words the English language has taken from other languages. Here is a compilation of what they have taken from South Asia. I then tried to see whether I knew the actual word in the local language (only those I can speak or understand) for these English ones. The result gave an idea of how anglicised the words got as they moved from the locals to the English. Below is the list and the words in brackets is the local version in case it seems to have changed heavily. The ones that have a question mark are the ones I never knew came from an Indian language.

1) Hindi/Urdu: bungalow (bunglaa), crore, dacoit (daaku), deodar, dinghy (?), dungaree, ghee, gymkhana, jodphurs, lakh, loot, paisa, pakora, Raj, samo(o)sa, shampoo (?), tandoori, tom-tom, wallah.

2) Malayalam: betel, coir, copra, ginger (?), teak.

3) Marathi: mongoose.

4) Sanskrit through various languages: ashram, avatar, banya, banyan, beryl, brahmin, carmine, cheetah, chintz, chutney, crimson, juggernaut, jungle, jute, lacquer, mandarin, palanquin, pundit, sapphire, sugar, suttee; more or less direct: ahimsa, asana, ashrama, atman, avatar, bodhisattva, brahmin, Buddha, chakra, guru, hatha yoga, karma, lingam, maharaja(h), mahatma, mantra, Maya, nirvana, raja(h), rani/ranee, satyagraha, sutra, swastika, yantra, yoga, yogasana.

5) Tamil: catamaran, cheroot, curry, mango, mulligatawny, pariah.

6) Telugu: bandicoot (pandi kokku).