Topic Of The Day:-“A long journey”
When it appeared, there was something carnivalesque about it. Anna Hazare appeared like an Old Testament prophet and Arvind Kejriwal, who is now Delhi Chief Minister, as a milder version almost had the gentleness of a later Testament. Mr. Hazare smelt Gandhian, more Swadeshi rather Swaraj, but his battle against corruption and alcohol had an old-fashioned style to it. He reeked of nostalgia and India wanted the nostalgia of Gandhi and the national movement for a while. But one sensed an authoritarian streak in him, and Mr. Kejriwal seemed to be more fine-tuned to the new generation. As a former Indian Institute of Technology student and revenue officer, he seemed more real. His arrival was greeted with a sense of unprecedented joy. AAP seemed amphibious enough to be both non-governmental organisation and political party, and be naive enough to be quixotic. The beginning was almost like a reverie. Sadly, his Teflon-coated attitude to feminist issues did not work and instead of sounding progressive, he betrayed hints of a khap panchayat mindset. Yet, his audience was loyal. Each of us could reel off the names of idealistic people who had joined him. They came from many walks of life and helped create a halo of expectation around the party. There was also a sense of moral luck because the Congress was at the height of its inanity. If the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had become formidable as the main bet, many felt AAP as a side bet would sustain a more creative politics. In the beginning, the very disorder of AAP conveyed that sense of effervescence. There was a gossip of the new, a real sense of pluralism, a bilingual idealism where English-speaking college students and Hindi-speaking activists found a meeting point. For many of them, politics offered the possibility of a career which allowed for both ideals and a real impact. AAP for a few months seemed to be the harbinger of a new future.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Redrawn
Meaning: Draw or draw up again or differently.
Example: “the rota was redrawn”
Synonyms: Draw, Prepare
2) Landscape
Meaning: All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.
Example: “the soft colours of the Northumbrian landscape”
Synonyms: Aspect, Perspective
3) Fragmented
Meaning: Break or cause to break into fragments.
Example: “Lough Erne fragmented into a series of lakes”
Synonyms: Break, Explode
4) Hammered out
Meaning: to reach an agreement or solution after a lot of argument or discussion.
Example: Three years after the accident the lawyers finally managed to hammer out a settlement with the insurance company.
Synonyms: Decision, Decide
5) Short-sighted
Meaning: Lacking imagination or foresight.
Example: “a short-sighted government”
Synonyms: Narrow-minded, Narrow
Antonyms: Far-sighted, Imaginative
6) One-upmanship
Meaning: The technique or practice of gaining an advantage or feeling of superiority over another person.
Example: “the one-upmanship of who can get the best presents”
7) Patronage
Meaning: The power to control appointments to office or the right to privileges.
Example: “recruits are selected on merit, not through political patronage”
Synonyms: Partisanship, Favoritism
8) Marginalised
Meaning: Treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral.
Example: “by removing religion from the public space, we marginalize it”
9) Subsumed
Meaning: Include or absorb (something) in something else.
Example: “most of these phenomena can be subsumed under two broad categories”
10) Concessions
Meaning: The action of conceding or granting something.
Example: “this strict rule was relaxed by concession”
Synonyms: Admission, Acceptance
Antonyms: Denial, Retention
11) Fledgling
Meaning: A person or organization that is immature, inexperienced, or underdeveloped.
Example: “the country’s fledgling democracy”
Synonyms: Emergent, Beginning
Antonyms: Mature
12) Flux
Meaning: Continuous change.
Example: “the whole political system is in a state of flux”
Synonyms: Variability, Instability
Antonyms: Stability
13) Squabbling
Meaning: Quarrel noisily over a trivial matter.
Example: “the boys were squabbling over a ball”
Synonyms: Quarrel, Argue
14) Exemplars
Meaning: A person or thing serving as a typical example or appropriate model.
Example: “the place is an exemplar of multicultural Britain”
Synonyms: Model, Ideal
15) Mundane
Meaning: Lacking interest or excitement; dull.
Example: “his mundane, humdrum existence”
Synonyms: Dull, Tedious
Antonyms: Extraordinary, Imaginative
16) Perpetual
Meaning: Occurring repeatedly; so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted.
Example: “their perpetual money worries”
Synonyms: Interminable, Ceaseless
17) Hypothesis
Meaning: A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Example: “his ‘steady state’ hypothesis of the origin of the universe”
Synonyms: Conjecture, Supposition
18) Prophet
Meaning: A person who supports a new system of beliefs and principles
Example: Rousseau, that great prophet of the modern age
Synonyms: Seer, Harbinger
19) Testament
Meaning: Something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact, event, or quality.
Example: “growing attendance figures are a testament to the event’s popularity”
Synonyms: Witness, Evidence
20) Reeked of
Meaning: If an event or situation reeks of an unpleasant quality, it seems to be caused by or connected to that quality.
Example: His promotion reeks of favouritism.
