The Narrative

 

It was around the year 2000, I believe. Possibly when Sam Pitroda and team launched the telecom revolution. A certain expression appeared from nowhere and became ubiquitous and universal. I do not know if this was just an exclusively Indian phenomenon, as I did not come across the usage of this expression elsewhere in the world during my overseas travels.

The then ubiquitous expression was “ taking a call”

In any conversation or transaction, involving more than one individual or organisation , when it came about to take a decision or position, this expression kicked in.

Examples abounded.

You go to seek a decision on how to resolve an imminent crisis to your boss, presenting him with several alternatives- for him to “take a call” on the same.

“The Govt. seized of the latest issue in the matter of “high Cut Off marks in admissions announces that the Dept.of Higher Education will “take a call” on the issue well before the academic session begins.”- says an official press release.

Your wife confronts you with a very serious issue as to whether to go in for gold or platinum jewellery for the upcoming wedding anniversary and you, unable to write a cheque immediately, assure her that “we can’ take a call’ on same after I return from the official trip”

Well, it could be as mundane a decision as to “What is for dinner”. You can “take a call’ on the same, once you are back home.

One always wonders as to the evolution of such expressions. I am not aware of any lexicographers

or semantics specialists ever attempting to delve into the genesis of such expressions , which appear

from nowhere but have a viral effect when it comes to their ubiquitous adoption and usage. The

queer thing about them is that they are so universalised that no one even perceives that they are

new and were not used so frequently perhaps , few months back. They are also so simple and not

bombastic that anyone can adopt them with ease.

As I mentioned in the beginning, it is not clear whether this sudden ushering of such expression has anything to do with any advent in social affairs, or cultural paradigms or simply an introduction of new technology like pagers or mobile phones. You would have noticed that ‘taking a call” coincided with the telecom revolution kick started by Pitroda team.

In essence, “taking a call ‘meant that the user will’ address the issue on hand ‘ or’ exercise her option’ in a matter of multiple choices, without specifying or giving an hint of how the outcome will be.

May be the political class or bureaucracy would have found it a more convenient alternative to the time tested “ will get back to you”.

The latest to hit the linguistics canvas of any one who speaks or writes English is the “narrative’

As an avid reader of news, articles, watcher of all sorts of visual media, I have never the felt the frequency of sue of the expression” narrative’ before as it happens in the recent few months.

There appears to be a very subtle but widespread adoption of this word.

Pick up any article or keep watching the cacaphonic debate on any news channel- you are sure to bump into the use of this word.

Talk of the Trump-Kim summit.The ‘narrative’ of US North Korea relationship has changed.

The effect of Demonetisation of GST- the “narrative” of the ease of doing business has altered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lexicon defines “” as below: narrative

 spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

"a gripping narrative"

Synonyms:

account, story, tale, chronicle, history, description, record, portrayal, sketch, portrait, statement, report, rehearsal,  recital, rendering

 

Not a day passes without “the narrative” popping up in all possible types of human communication:

News in TV, Print; Debates, critiques, Govt. Notifications, political polemic, You tube videos, advertisements, corporate communications, even formal conversations!

The only nuance between ‘take a call” and ‘the narrative is that both did exist as either phrase or an expression for ages but assumed extensive frequency of usage and context beginning a particular phase of communication.

In contrast to entirely modern day inventions like” googling’,”pinging’,”on boarding’ etc.,which patently are products of a technology development t and nothing else  otherwise

                                           xxxxx---xxxx—xxxx---xxxx---xxxx-xxx