Leisurely reviewing a dictionary in spare time is an old hobby with me. The procedure, in combination with an occasional consultation of a thesaurus, has always made me delight in the sheer beauty of word power. No excursion through the dictionary has ever failed to impress me with the realization of what words can do to man. You can move, maneuver and mould a man with mere words !

If the last statement has not already succeeded in stirring you up, please do (t)read on. Making an allowance for the fact that the effect of your previous night’s slumber may not have worn off yet, it will be in the fairness of things to allow you some time to shake off your tardiness.

Well, I can almost see some of you beginning to scratch your head. Perhaps you are wondering what impels me to write what I do. The answer is : “nothing but the desire to drive home my point”. Do let me dilate, please.

I would perhaps appear to be digressing from the point I made about mere words being able to move, maneuver & mould a man. If such is the case, it goes to show the desirability of withdrawing from the scene a bit so as to grasp it in its entirety. So do take the trouble to re-read the last two paras and contemplate a little. If you have made this move, you would have caught the point. You agree it was rather like being unable to see the wood from the trees? Well, so much for moving & maneuvering !

The skeptic in you, I can sense, has taken guard in the face of what it might be considering the risk of getting enmeshed in a rigmarole. Makes my task difficult, it does ! Since I still have to prove that one can ‘mould’ a man with mere words.

A little aid from my favorite English dictionary – a standard one , I assure – is going to sort the problem out. It describes the verb (transitive) form of ‘mould’ to mean variously as ‘to give shape’, ‘to alter shape’ etc. So that altering the shape of a man (or whatever ‘a man’ stands for) would be tantamount to moulding him. It should require no great scholar but a dictionary again, to tell you that the expression ‘a man’ means not necessarily a man’s corporeal self but also what he represents.

The situation, I feel, needs a little more help; this time, from a thesaurus. Any thesaurus will proclaim ‘guise’ to be a substitute for ‘shape’ in a suitable situation. And a dictionary further reveals that ‘to alter the guise’ is what one means by ‘disguise’ (when used as a transitive verb).

Having proved an equation of ‘disguise’ with ‘mould’, my task becomes simpler. It gets reduced to proving that mere words can be used to disguise a man (or whatever a man represents). Ripe time now for making you a revelation.

My intentions about words are not exactly what I have been professing to be. What I intend is merely to pretend that my words are pretentious enough to claim the attainment of the unattainable through the employment of hitherto unemployed tactics. Don’t get me wrong, though. This is merely what I pretend and not exactly what I intend !

There are only two possibilities now. Either I have succeeded in disguising my real intentions, or I have not. If not, could you please enlighten me on what you think they are, please? But if I did succeed in the camouflage, you will agree I merely used ‘words’ for the purpose. And I certainly am a man who represents his own intentions !

Well, what do you say to this? Have I been as good as my word? Even if you choose not to say a word, I think I know better. Reticence is often more revealing than what one says !