The Comma

When I was in sixth and seventh grade I had a teacher, English teacher, who hated my guts. Every chance she got, she would carve up my essay, poem, prose, or paragraph. But in those two years, it is safe to say, I learned nothing of grammar, let alone about the crusade against the comma. “Your paper is rather insightful Mr. Gupta, but you have far too many comma usage errors. Please note chapter five of your grammar text on the ‘comma splice’.” I read the chapter. I counted four commas on the first page. All sentences were short. The next page seemed like one consecutive run-on sentence as if the author forgot to taking a break take a breath and see the breadth of damage one long sentence could produce on any given page in a particular grammar textbook that was supplied by the school district in the hopes of winning the war against taking pause…

I mention this only because I have been trying to teach myself basic tourist level Hindi with extra vocabulary. I really just don’t get where I am supposed to pause, inflect, rest or imply an end to my sentence. An English correspondent once wrote a book called “No Full Stops” all about the fact that Indians operate with implied commas, pauses, tied more to the rhythm of what is being said than particular grammatical requirement. In the end, it is the grammar. Mrs. Shaver would have croaked.