MyVoice: Views of our readers 03rd Dec 2025

How about ‘ahimsa’ as word of the year

Thanks for your timely editorial “OUP’s ‘Word of the Year’ Impacts Social Media Status” (THI Dec 2). It comes when Macaulay—ironically forgotten in Britain—is being remembered for all the wrong reasons. He spent less than four years in India, yet his policy to create clerks also gave us English, which helped India stay globally competitive. Many Indian English expressions have made it to dictionaries.

His colonial mindset has long been Indianised and admirers of leaders like Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi now seem enslaved by it. This mentality has infiltrated every sphere of life and fuels rage, both online and offline. Hopefully, “Ahimsa” will become the word of the year in 2026.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

‘Rage bait’ does not denote aggression

Although words form a potent secret force, when used in certain situations some words can reveal the magnetism of a positive or an aggressive personality. The inclusion of a lengthy word widely used in short form in the Oxford dictionary has been going on year after year for quite some time now. Certain words have been so arrayed that they provide humour and bring a smile by diluting the bitterness of situations.

The latest inclusion ‘Rage bait’ follows the same pattern. Incidentally, every OUP ‘word of the year’ evokes curiosity among people, who will be able to read the word in its right perspective and understand the hidden facet of situations, events and happenings. Though the latest addition is believed to impact social media status, one must understand that it does not hurt as it is merely an expression of an emotion with a reason and not aggression.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad-3

Provide escalators at all railway stations

It is a good augury that most of the metro railway stations have lifts and a functional escalator system for the convenience of the physically disabled persons and senior citizens. This also helps students, who go about with overloaded bags.

I appeal to the railway authorities to have such a system across railway stations near FOBs to safely go from one platform to another. It should be incorporated at bus stands, ports, shipyards and airports. Wheel-carts must also be provided to help coolies and passengers to move their luggage without too much of a physical burden.

P V P Madhu Nivriti, Secunderabad-61

Think of farmer-friendly infra measures

It is time the authorities make it more convenient for the farmers by allowing private parties to build godowns near the fields and roofs at market yards to safeguard the yield from sudden spells of rain). This will be a big boon to the farmers. Similarly, public toilets must also be constructed.

A better option is to opt for the cost-effective Chinese bio-toilets that incorporate ‘flushed water recycling’ systems. Solid waste may be used to get gas and subsequently turn them into ash by incineration. This will eliminate the inhuman manual scavenging. It will be in the fitness of things if the government and private builders collaborate with a 50-50 sharing to meet the costs.

Sreelekha P S, Secunderabad-61

Don’t dilly-dally Polavaram project

The people of Andhra Pradesh are fed up reading contradictory reports about the tentative dates for completion of the Polavaram multipurpose project. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had assured the State Assembly that the project would be completed by December 2018. Since then, we have been waiting for the project to see the light of the day.

No government has completed any irrigation project that is worth the name since 2014. Polavaram was declared a national project, and the Centre was supposed to construct it. But Naidu took it upon himself to construct it at the State level. Kickbacks, corruption and nepotism have been his forte all through his 45+year political journey. Hopefully, he will stand by his word on Polavaram and Amaravati.

Govardhana Myneedu, Vijayawada