Chastisement, Upgradation, Retrofitment...

                                                                     Chastisement, Upgradation, Retrofitment...

A peculiar propensity of writers in newspaper or magazines is to avoid using gerunds.Detesting gerunds−check that, detestation of gerunds−appears to be their birthright. Why is it so? I haven’t the foggiest.

“The retrofitment of the 787s is expected to conclude by 2027,” is a part of the sentence in a newspaper article I read recently. It is an article about AIR INDIA’s woes, pertaining particularly to its large fleet of Boeing aircrafts. The other words in the heading are also words I found in English language newspaper or magazine articles, and I am not lying.

My MS Word fits a red squiggly line underneath the word “retrofitment”, and that is as well.

I did not expect such an aversion to gerunds, present participles taking on the role of a noun.OK, language mavens might nitpick on my understanding of gerunds. In my defence, this is how I was taught.

Here, to be honest, I must admit I did read, “[C]reating guidelines”, “[D]efining global benchmarks”, “...ensuring diverse traditions ... can coexist” in another article about WHO,along with India, drafting global benchmarks on Yoga. My shout-out goes to Bindu Shajan Perappadan who appears in the by-line of this article. Yes, there are some clear thinking people too among newspaper writers!

Perappadan, had she wished, could have written, “[Creation] of guidelines”, “[D]efinition of global benchmarks”, and last but not least, “...ensurance/ensurement... can coexist.” The last item is merely to show the absurdity of this trend of/obsession with avoiding gerunds, or more appropriately but absurdly, gerund avoidance! But she did not. Good for the readers.

Just for fun. Had the assignment been, “Designing the Tower for Diving Competition in Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex”, and someone pathologically opposed to the use of –ing altered it to, “Designment of the Tower for Divement Competition in Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimmtion Pool Complex”! Chew the cud on that!

When I was working in an engineering consultancy company, I had written/compiled a number of proposals for “Upgradation” (typically widening) of a two-lane road to a four-lane road (this was the time of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 7, Race Course Road who promotedthe East-West and the North-South Corridors; I thank him from the bottom of my heart as he helped me feed my family!). But, it was also the time of “Retrofitting” as the projects involved retrofitting and upgrading as much as possible the then existing national highways, and not, “Retrofitment”. By the way, for those who are not sure what retrofitting is, I offer the following: You take what exists and make it fit to suit the demands not merely of today but setting the horizon a few decades further into the future. Retrofitting, if properly done is a process of building-in effectiveness that makes the past blend seamlessly into the future. Economy is achieved through thinking into the future.

The above paragraph is an excusable diversion from the topic of this rant. Coming back, a gerund untangles a knotted sentence. Gerund lets one travel towards common sense. Avoiding it is a descending stairway to linguistic hell, no halfway landing.

Raghuram Ekambaram