talktooloose

Snake is reading his way through "Teach Yourself Hindi: a Complete Beginner's Course". Most of these beginner language books feature lame dialogues like, "Hello, I'm Mary. Hello, I'm José. Where is the pharmacy? I need to buy prophylactics."

You can sort of picture the sanitized ethnic street where they're standing and imagine their shy student modesty with just a hint of the lust hiding under the surface.

In contrast, the only way to make sense of the following dialogue from "Teach Yourself Hindi" is to imagine that Pramod is a paranoid schizophrenic who has just burst into the family home in a highly agitated state, tie askew, brow covered in vivid, cartoon sweat. His sister, Usha, tries to calm the disoriented man by helping him to recognize his loved ones and, in fact, the everyday objects around them:

Pramod:	Who is that man?!
Usha:	He is Raju. Raju is a student.
Pramod:	I see. Who are those women?!
Usha:	They are Mother and Uma. The tall lady is Mother.
Pramod:	What is this? Is it a book?!
Usha:	No, it's not a book, it's a newspaper.
Pramod:	How many newspapers and books are there here?
Usha:	Here there are nine newspapers and seven books
Pramod:	What are the books like? Are they big?
Usha:	Yes, they are big.

At this point, Usha changes strategy and begins asking the questions of Pramod in an attempt to ground him in the reality of his home.

Usha:	What is that pen like?
Pramod:	This is a red pen. Both these pens are red.
Usha:	How many pencils and pens are there here?
Pramod:	Here there are only two pens and two pencils, that's all.