An old family story which my late mother used to narrate with relish relates to more than six decades ago, when I was possibly about three or so. Apparently we had gone visiting to one of our family friends. when their daughter, who was about seven or eight years older than me called me to play with her and her brothers, I apparently refused and she is supposed to have grumbled that I would be happier counting the number of buttons on each person's dress rather than playing with other children. This makes it quite obvious then that this trait of looking at details (like being a grammar Nazi) is firmly embedded in me. After all, an experience of six decades is nothing to be sneezed at!
There are different ways of looking at this behaviour - it can be described as attention to detail or being a perfectionist, for instance or less charitably, as indulging in nit-picking or being pernickety. The description always lies in the eye of the beholder. Be it as it may, this has affected the way I observe things, the way I dress, the way I speak, the way I write and even the way I post on social media. It is almost crazy but virtually every post of mine undergoes a round of editing before I actually publish it.
This near-obsession leads me veering towards OCB or Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour sometimes. For instance, in my last work space, starting from my desk, every little bit had to be exactly in the same place - the book shelf and the books on it, the items of stationery, the computer et al. If a visitor cane to call on me and shifted one of the guest chairs, almost by the time he or she exitted the room, I would adjust it to its original place with millimetric precision. In other words, the old cliche 'a place for everything and everything in its place' seemed to rule my life. As I grow older and become more forgetful, however, this trait is useful - as long as I remember to keep everything in place, in the first place!
When I became a teacher, at first, this led me to correcting even mistakes of grammar in assignments submitted by students. Fortunately I soon realised that this was just detracting from the main goal and making me less efficient. I stopped wielding the red pen on at least grammatical and syntactical errors pretty quickly. I was also quick enough to realise that people generally do not like to see their mistakes being pointed out. This was brought home firmly in a private forum of friends where I pointed out a minor inconsistency in a forwarded joke and got roundly chastised for my pains.
There is a Malayalam saying 'adhikam aayal amrithamum veshum' meaning an excess of even amritam (the Holy Nectar) can result in poison. While the focus on minute details definitely leads to perfectionism and results in a good job being turned in, every time, it could result in missing the woods for the trees, if one is not careful. By and large, today, in all walks of life, the focus is on getting the job done. Excessive attention to detail could derail this process. The art of course will be to strike the right balance.
Will this stop me from being a Grammar Nazi in future? Highly unlikely !
There are different ways of looking at this behaviour - it can be described as attention to detail or being a perfectionist, for instance or less charitably, as indulging in nit-picking or being pernickety. The description always lies in the eye of the beholder. Be it as it may, this has affected the way I observe things, the way I dress, the way I speak, the way I write and even the way I post on social media. It is almost crazy but virtually every post of mine undergoes a round of editing before I actually publish it.
This near-obsession leads me veering towards OCB or Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour sometimes. For instance, in my last work space, starting from my desk, every little bit had to be exactly in the same place - the book shelf and the books on it, the items of stationery, the computer et al. If a visitor cane to call on me and shifted one of the guest chairs, almost by the time he or she exitted the room, I would adjust it to its original place with millimetric precision. In other words, the old cliche 'a place for everything and everything in its place' seemed to rule my life. As I grow older and become more forgetful, however, this trait is useful - as long as I remember to keep everything in place, in the first place!
When I became a teacher, at first, this led me to correcting even mistakes of grammar in assignments submitted by students. Fortunately I soon realised that this was just detracting from the main goal and making me less efficient. I stopped wielding the red pen on at least grammatical and syntactical errors pretty quickly. I was also quick enough to realise that people generally do not like to see their mistakes being pointed out. This was brought home firmly in a private forum of friends where I pointed out a minor inconsistency in a forwarded joke and got roundly chastised for my pains.
There is a Malayalam saying 'adhikam aayal amrithamum veshum' meaning an excess of even amritam (the Holy Nectar) can result in poison. While the focus on minute details definitely leads to perfectionism and results in a good job being turned in, every time, it could result in missing the woods for the trees, if one is not careful. By and large, today, in all walks of life, the focus is on getting the job done. Excessive attention to detail could derail this process. The art of course will be to strike the right balance.
Will this stop me from being a Grammar Nazi in future? Highly unlikely !
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