IRAC is not a country...

There are few things in life that I pride myself on....one of which is the fact that I can read and write english well...I got more than 90% for english in school...and I even passed the highly suspect but mandatory Regional Institute of English exam when I entered law school... it is another matter that the exam only involved you looking at the pictures of animals and writing the names down in english....(Ofcourse one could always be imaginative and name them fluffy or spotty as well-but then when was such wit appreciated in the contest of an exam)....

So imagine my surprise when for the past 5 days the one thing that has been dominating my time in the firm is lessons on english language and its various nuances..the generous teacher being the newly returned american partner of my firm....."Alice, dont use the parenthesis..just use a bracket" ...paren..what? before I could even figure out that it is a word belonging to the english language he is on to the next language correction...."Always write in active voice. Do you know the meaning of active voice?"...Ahem, no...but does it help that my mind was suddenly active?......"Did they teach you IRAQ in school?" Ah! finally a question I knew the answer to-which school doesnt teach kids about the middle east?..Right? Wrong!!! IRAC (not Q) is a style of writing which is used in America which is slowly creeping into India.....thank god I dont speak that quickly....And ofcourse then there are the comas and the full stops ....a coma here, a full stop there, prevents my document from being dull ...

so there I was..cooped up with my secretary adding a coma here, using a bracket there, removing a parenthesis, putting a full stop in..ohhh Gosh did I miss one parenthesis on page 243?? Ahhhhh ... the attack of the comas, full stops and the parenthesis is here...run for your lives!!

Well all I am grateful for now is that he cannot see my blog....imagine!

P.S. for the uninitiated..parenthesis is our normal bracket...yes (-), the simple down to earth bracket...who would have thot this simple utilitarian tool of the english language would have such a fancy name to it...