Aanandham 'Bru'vudan Aarambam...*

TV is a powerful visual medium and the Tamil channels (or for that matter any channel that hosts soap operas) are a real waste of time. As a person interested in the advertisement world, I derive satisfaction only from the ads that are sometimes refreshing. No, I'm not talking about the 'padhinaalu muppaththonnu pyorea palpodi, bale bale palpodi' type of ads but the ones that are short, sweet, targeted, and visually arresting. One of them that I liked recently is the 'Bru' ad.

The husband returns home and asks for "Coffee?". The wife makes some coffee and shares it with her husband and then she hits upon an idea and pours some coffee into a mini-cup and passes it on to her husband. Her husband says, "Really?" and then the wife blushes! Sweet, Very Sweet indeed! This is totally warm if you consider the countless no. of ways the same message is conveyed in Indian movies. There's a stereotype to this in Indian movies. Husband comes to know of this fact thru the wife or someone else and comes rushing home and then asks something close to "really?" in a very artificial tone and then either sheds 'aanandhak kanneer**' as if he has achieved something or starts a duet. I like this ad because it's so natural & spontaneous and packs in a complete romantic story in about 15 seconds, so typical of a good ad.

*(Aanandham 'Bru'vudan Aarambam = Happiness starts with Bru)
**(aanandhak kanneer = "tears of joy" in Tamil)

Anyways... shall we forget dis?

I'm strongly opinionated and I get easily annoyed on certain things like bad traffic manners and bad use of English grammar. Let me start with the disclaimer that I'm no God in English grammar but pick up stuff if someone points out my mistake. In this globalized world, it's very important that we speak English as close to the native speakers as possible - both in terms of syntax and semantics.

This time, my grouse is on the usage of 'anyway'. This is one of the most abused English word in India. 'Anyways' is wrong. It's plain wrong to say anyways. The adjective any qualifies a singular noun, not a plural.

Do the following words sound correct to you?
Any people
Any nations

Or, do these sound correct to you?
Any one
Any nation

Then, why do you use 'Anyways'?

While the usage of 'Anyways' is a more sophisticated syntax error, relatively speaking, the use of 'da' for 'the' and 'dat' for 'that' by the teens of today is plain stupidity. What energy do you save by not typing one extra character? It doesn't make you look "cool" but it definitely makes you look foolish in front of a native speaker. Anywez, please consider changing for da better!!