WORD COUNT

Posted on 08/17/2016

There has been activity in the tourism department of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India that is drawing attention - incidents with only one plausible explanation. I believe that an enthusiastic staff member, responsible for tweeting about the destination has a Word of the Day calendar. And there are times when this person neglects to use a calendar word a day, and then compensates by rolling together a string of days (words) in one sentence.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in northern India. It is the home to the Taj Mahal and Varanasi, a city that sits on the banks of the Ganges. Varanasi is considered the cultural capital of northern India, home to many philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians.
Varanasi already has a “word mentality.” The city is also known as Benares, Banaras and Kashi.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Tourism recently released a tweet about Varanasi, “The unbeaten sagacious astuteness of #Varanasi is no less than a figurine of rectitude for the people.”
I have read this a few times, and I think it’s a compliment to the local people, or in the very least admiration for figurines, of which I share myself.
CS Lewis once said; “Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very, otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”
Amid the mocking from the twitter-sphere, UP Tourism deleted the tweet quickly but the global word hounds started sniffing around for older material and posted past tweets from UP Tourism.
One stated, “Seizure the quietude engraved in the transcendent aura of Varanasi.”
A tweet about Rani Lakshmibai (A queen of the Jhansi state who was part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857) stated, “The Indian Joan of Arc Rani Lakshmibai persists to spell the radiance of fortitude and valour in this vast realm from cradle to grave.
UP Tourism has been accused of having its department run by a thesaurus; or Deepak Chopra.
I like the tweets. I don’t know what they mean, but they sound smart, like reading an article by Conrad Black, he of the “transmuted foibles” and “odious despotism”.
The fact that I looked up Varanasi when I read the first tweet means that UP Tourism succeeded in giving exposure to the city.
And if they ever end up on an endangered list, remember that Uttar Pradesh was the first tourism office to show support for figurines.