shabd

long drives have a way of filling yr mind with wide-ranging thoughts...philosophical, funny, rhetorical, strange, sobering, saddening, searching, random. while on one such drive amidst pristine white snow-covered vistas, my mind found its way into the domain of words. i simply love words...in particular, phonetics. of course, semantics are nice too, but there's something in the way some words sound that captivates me. the lyrical quality of certain words, to me, can lie in the meter or sequence of the distinct sounds that form its composite whole, or it can be embedded in the entire word where the individual elements fuse such that they cannot be broken up.

so here's a (very incomplete!) list of some of my favourite words.

hindi/urdu/punjabi:
mehjabeen, aashiaana, sparsh, akshat, seher, jind, zikr, saaz, saanjh, suroor, surkh, bazm, shehzaade, saakshi, dehleez, samar, sharm, toofan-mail, dheeth, dhyaan, grahan, arz, lekin, aanchal, bazaar, larzish

english: sparkling, stream, splash, mingling, supercaliflagellistic-expiallidocious, idyll, swarm, sequin, sprinkle, ream, azure, onomatopoeic, apoplectic, pertinacious, schadenfraude, squelch, elixir, peripatetic, fop, tickety-boo, besmirch

what are yours?

PS: a 'sparkling' new year to all.