The Wing’d Word

Content:

Foreword
Acknowledgements 
Word Travel: Escaping on the Wings of Words 
Sparks of Imagination: The Value of Eccentrics 
Women Down Ages: Deadlier than the Male? 
Verbiage Power: Blarney, Bafflegab and Company, Inc. 
Symphony of Time: Will the Real New Year Please Stand Up? 
Cover with Glory: Forgotten Sons of Gorakhpur 
Upsurge in Pak: Of Lawyers and “Liars” 
To Mother with Respects: Keeping the Fifth Commandment at Least for a Day 
Urdu in Time-Warp: Lament for a “Linguicide” 
With Rhyme and Reason: The Secret Politics of Mother Goose 
Contours of Terror: Dangerous Liaisons 
Taste and Tenor: Old Words in New Clothes 
Of Feminine Fury: When Women Go Wrong... 
Hairy Eloquence: The Language of Moustaches 
Long and Short of It: The Name Game 
Stone-walled in History: The Mystery of the Missing Muslim Queens 
The Mosaic of Language: Speaking in Tongues 
Hope, Eternal Hope: Playing Pollyanna 
Devils of High Seas: “Whatever Men Can Do...” 
Bad Omen, Good Omen: Friday, November 13th 
Easy on Tongue: The Rampant Alphabet Pandemic 
Bouquets with Love: Flower Babble 
Many-Splendoured Wonder, Menace or Marvel?: Moon of the West; Moon of the East 
Over to New Year: The Legacy of the Two-Faced God 
Beauty over the Ages: Vanity or Insanity? 
Repertoire of Idioms, Peculiar Pastimes: Dancing Radhas and Ear-Worms 
Lingo of Sense and Nonsense: Jabberwocky 
Fables of the East: Birds of a Feather 
The Charmed Circle: The Politics of Beauty 
Wordplay Magic: The Power of the Pun 
Growth of Gargantuan: Mai Kolachi’s Mega-Metropolis 
Scroll of Honour: Truly August 
Out of the Sahib’s Mouth: The Isle o’ Bats, Rum-Johnnies and Other Oddities 
The Devil Within: The Curse of Cain 
Ready for Some Gossip: Feathers in the Wind 
The Emancipation of Language: Dethroning Nice Nelly and Nek Parveen 
Quotable Quotes: A Touch of the Classic 
If Looks Could Kill...: The “Eyes” Have It 
“Verse or Worse”: The Lure of the Limerick 
Warrior Women: Muslim Heroines in War and Peace 
Survival for Sale: Noah’s Arks for Today 
Casualties of Progress: Hai hai re “Hi”! 
Mind your Language: Roman Riot 
The Year of the Rabbit: The Moon Rabbit and Others of the Species 
A Living Monument: The Committee That Could 
International Women’s Day: Celebrating the Uncelebrated 
The Portuguese Connection: Legacies of the Spice Trade 
Festival of Fools: Spring Fever 
Versatile X: Xtraneous but Xtraordinary 
The Vagaries of Fame: Shaved Pig with a Greased Tail 
Ludicrous Legislation: When the Law is an Ass 
Magical Number: Magnificent Seven 
Quest for Utopia: Lost Worlds 
Indigestible Mouthfuls: Crustimoney Proseedcake 
Murphy’s Law in Printing: The Printer’s Devil 
Credit Where it’s Due: The Real Flower People 
From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Lost and Found in Translation 
Coping with Chaos: The State of English 
Shattered Dreams: Yesterday’s Heroes 
Intriguing Instructions: Cautioning All Customers 
Olympian Heritage: Gifts from the Gods 
Uncrowned Queens: Monarchs of Mystery 
When Washington Killed Spartacus: History in a Song 
Lost Brainteasers: Riddle-Me-Ree 
Vive la difference!: Towards an Androgynous World? 
Tips of the Slung: The “Queer Old Dean” and His Legacy of Laughter 
Beasts of the East Gone West: The Migration of Myths 
Conflict of Wisdom: The Problem with Proverbs 
Slips of the Ear: The Murder of Meaning 
Divine Design or Dumb Luck?: The Moving Finger 
Eat Your Words!: Preposterous Predictions 
Culture on Wheels: A Moveable Feast 
First Sleuths of Fiction: Ousting an Icon 
“Miss Speak”: Words Out of Season and Reason 
Istanbul in the Spring: Turkish Delights 
Misdirection: Razzmatazz and all that Jazz 
Peculiarities of Pronunciation: Mutual Mutilation 
Culinary Legends: Cooking up a Story 
New Forms of Address: Auntipathy 
Aman ki Asha: Don’t Fence Me In 
The Differently-abled: Beyond Limitations 
Teachers on Trial: The World According to Students 
Buried Treasure: Wasted Words 
Colour Her Beautiful: The Plague of Pigmentocracy 
The Hour and the Man: The Cult of Superheroes 
What’s in a Name?: A Rose is a Rose is a Rose 
Pleasures of the Past: Lost in Transit 
The Air is Blue: Swearing off Swearing 
Santa Claus is Coming to Town!: The Making of a Modern Myth 
Glimpses of the Beyond: Incredible Journeys 
Museum of the Mind: Hunting Trophies 
The Pinocchio Predilection: When is a Lie-ability an Asset? 
Living Fossils: Flies in Amber 
Pride and Prejudice: Who Do You Think You Are? 
“The Islamification of Britain”: Carry on Maligning 
The Power of Names: What’s in a Name? 
Curse or Blessing?: Absence of Mind 
Passing the Buck: Of Scapegoats, Sin-eaters, and Whipping Boys 
Culinary Curiosities: Around the World, in Twenty-six Dishes 
Tales Told by Tea: Reading the Cup 
Wars Over Women: Zar, Zan, Zameen 
Malice in Blunderland?: Foot-in-Mouth Disease 
Congress of Faith: The Last Great Adventurer 
Unreaped Harvest: “Read!” 
Politics and Prostitution: The World’s Oldest Profession 
Age of Wisdom: The Mystique of Forty 
Anonymous Benefactors: Makers of Modern English 
The Many Faces of Satan: The Peacock Angel 
Shades of Meaning: The Puzzlement of Purple 
The King of Herbs: The Fragrance of Heaven 
Wounded Healer Syndrome: Physician, Heal Thyself! 
Unuselessness as an Art Form: Doubtful Devices 
Dumb Witnesses: Nature’s Gladiators 
Spellbound: Magic Words 
Information Overload: Infobesity and Infoxication 
Divas of Yesteryear: Bursts of Flame 
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief: Concepts of Luxury 
The Ides of March: A Fateful Day? 
Shades of Meaning: Just Blue 
Return of the Gods: The Deities in Our Days 
Live and Learn: Textese and Other Diseases 
Equine Heroes: Horse Power 
Terror at the Typewriter: Blank Page Blues 
Moonshine and Roses: The Moon in June 
The Irreverence of Language: The Divine, the Mundane and the Profane 
The Power of Prayer: Reflections in Crystal 
The Queen of Jewellery: Circles of Love 
Lasting Memorials: Remnants of the Raj 
Stranger in the Mirror: A Whole New You 
Roles on Reel and Real Life: And the Oscar Goes to... 
The Power of Punctuation: Conjuring with Commas 
Logorrhea: The Great Monologue Marathon 
The Storm, the City and the Saint: The Taming of the Shrew 
Punching with Putdowns: Retaliation by Repartee 
Ghostly Letter: “The P is Silent” 
Architectural Curiosities of Colonial Karachi: Stories in Stone 
Small Beginnings: Company of Consequence 
Minglish: “Gulabi” Lingo 
Homage to Humility: A Prince Among Men 
Valentine’s Day: Festive February 
Beyond Boundaries: The Speech of Angels 
International Women’s Day: Cherchez La Femme 
Curious Collections: Peculiar Passions 
A Cupful of History: Tales in a Teacup 
Not an iota of Doubt: Only a Dot? 
The Cult of Youth: Is Old Not Gold? 
“When Idiocy Marries Dogma…”: Fatal or Foolish Fatwas 
Are Elephants Contagious?: Political and Other Pachyderms 
Britain’s Abolition of Slavery: The Secret in a Portrait 
The Transatlantic Cousins: Forever Frenemies 
Name-calling: Toxic Taxonomy 
The Spy Princess: An Unlikely Heroine 
Memory Monster: Gifts of a Capricious Goddess 
The Greatest Cathedral: Wooden Jewels, Painted Sand 
More Word Tales: Serendipity 
Die-Hards: The Appointed Hour 
Paradise Lost: The Quest for Eden 
Roman à Clef: Identity Theft and Character Assassination 
End of Another Era: Moving On… 
Winged Symbols: Conference of Birds 
Humanity’s Inhumanity: Living Death

About the Author:
Raihana Ashhad Hasan hails from Pakistan and has a Master’s degree in English Literature. She has had varied experience in education, advertising and commercial aviation and has worked as a freelance editor, translator, columnist and writer. Her book Sunshine and Shadows is a translation of the autobiography of her mother who was President of the International Federation of the Blind. In Sips from a Broken Teacup, she has written about her time in tea gardens of East Pakistan, before and during the period of upheaval and creation of Bangladesh. She currently lives with her son in Portland, USA.