india

Updated: Aug 30, 2019 14:53 IST

Within minutes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting that all Indians should learn one word a day in any Indian language, wordsmith and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor did his bit with #LanguageChallenge.

Inaugurating the Manorama New Conclave via video conferencing from New Delhi, the Prime Minister said: ”Today, I have a humble suggestion. Can we not use the power of language to unite? Can media play the role of a bridge and bring people speaking different languages closer. This is not as difficult as it seems.”

The Prime Minister added a suggestion saying, “We can simply start with publishing one word in 10-12 different languages spoken across the country. In a year, a person can learn over 300 new words in different languages.”

Within minutes, responding to the idea, Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker tweeted:” I welcome this departure from Hindi dominance & gladly take him up on this #LanguageChallenge... I will tweet a word daily in English, Hindi & Malayalam. Others can do this in other languages. Here is the 1st one:

2/2 In response to the PM’s #LanguageChallenge, I will tweet a word daily in English, Hindi & Malayalam. Others can do this in other languages. Here is the 1st one:

Pluralism (English)

बहुलवाद

bahulavaad (Hindi)

ബഹുവചനം

bahuvachanam (Malayalam) — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 30, 2019

Tharoor, known for word wizadry, is known to push people to their dictionaries with his choice of words. Most recent being his statement in support of embattled Congress leader P Chidambaram.

Referring to a quote by Chidambaram last year: “To a person running scared, every shadow will be a demon”, Tharoor tweeted hours before the former minister’s arrest saying, “ It is a tribute to your strength of character that you are standing up to persecution & character assassination w/ courage & confidence. I believe justice will prevail in the end. Till then we will have to allow some malicious minds their schadenfreude.” The Oxford dictionary meaning of the word schadenfreude is, ‘a feeling of pleasure at the bad things that happen to other people.’

Tharoor has in the past used words like farrago, rodomontade, webaqoof, kakistocracy and snollygoster. Last year his comment, “I’ve had to put up with a lot of roorbacks in the last few years!” sent people hunting for dictionaries. Dictionary meaning of Roorbacks: ‘a defamatory falsehood published for political effort’.