dread – Be afraid or scared of; be frightened of. Fearful expectation or anticipation. Causing fear or dread or terror. “the dread presence of the headmaster”.
Wilt – Become limp. “The flowers wilted”. Lose strength. “My opponent was wilting”. Any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots. Causing to become limp or drooping
I work at Dr. Kamath’s clinic as a receptionist. To you it might not mean anything, but to the people in this town it is a matter of suppressed laughter.
Dr. Kamath loves solving crosswords. So he thinks that it is the most loved pass-time of every human being. Hence instead of saying something directly he would give cryptic clues. Though while giving the clues he would be rident, by the end of it the ‘victim’ would be frustrated. To give you a clear picture, I will have to narrate this story to you.
That fateful day was my birthday! As was the ritual I spent a few hours with the kids at my mother’s NGO. My love for fresh flowers was so well-known that I would usually end up with a lot of bouquets by the end of the day. That morning I got a call from Dr. Kamat. I wondered as I had told him that I will be late. My friends had decided to surprise me, and there was no better way other than courier a gift with Dr. Kamath’s number for communication. But this is how he told me, “Aparna I got a message from the harbinger of tokens; you have something lively and fragrant sent by people who have mutual affection with you. You should take a guess!” I lost him after harbinger. But deep down I prayed to the lord above that it should not be flowers. Even though his clinic is bang opposite the famous landmark of the town, it is not so visible from the road. Hence, more often than never, the delivery guys will have to call to the clinic to know the exact place. And if it is Dr. Kamath who is giving directions then that day he will not get to go anywhere else.
I hurried to the clinic to get my gift.
It was 1 pm by the time I reached. Dr. Kamath had gone for lunch. As I sat on my chair I saw a note on my desk. I opened it with a dread. It read, “Hunt for treasure you must, let’s play this game for a jest! Your clue lies in the tent, now get up and be ambulant!” Tent?! There was no tent anywhere in that place. I looked in every nook and cranny of the clinic. I was about to give up when I thought, “May be it is his coat. He always makes fun of it as a tent, because of its huge size!” I rushed to the coat-stand and found it hanging there. In the pocket was another clue. This one said, “What is life but a game, after this your gift won’t be same. It will be more precious to you, look under your desk too!” I had this weird feeling that this clue was going to come true, that my gift won’t remain the same after this treasure hunt. I looked under my desk and there was another clue stuck there.
From there I went after each and every clue which lead to me to everything other than my gift. I was frustrated. It was 3 pm. My work was still pending and I was searching for God-knows-what!
I know you would be thinking, ‘why isn’t she calling and asking Dr. Kamath?’ Well that is because he will not tell me where it is. No matter how hard I try and cajole. For him his cryptic treasure hunt gives the same pleasure as solving crossword. Dejected I went back to my desk. I was worried that if it were flowers then by now they would have lost their freshness. And that was the last thing I wanted. Just then Dr. Kamath walked in.
He was in high spirits. He looked at me quizzically. I shrugged and said (with irritation being very evident), “where have you hid it? I searched everywhere!” He smiled and placed another slip in my hand and said with a wink, “I had the last clue. I didn’t want to miss the excitement on your face!” I had to grit my teeth to restraint myself from saying anything unpleasant. I opened it and read the last clue, “There is no place that is more fit, other than the pit. Haven’t you realized yet, that my steed carries it!” I had to wrack my brain and it dawned on me that it meant the gift was in the boot of his car! I ran to him and asked him, almost pleadingly, to open the boot of his car. He smiled, patted on my back and gave me the key.
I don’t why I trembled when I opened the car. It was as if I was worried that I would discover a dead-body in it. I saw a big long white plastic cover that was knotted on the top. By the look of it I couldn’t guess what it could be. I grabbed it up and opened to see my worst fear coming to life. It was a big bouquet of white roses with all the freshness gone. In the heat of the boot, climate and cover it was in, it looked steamed and cooked. I felt a weight crushing my heart. It was a birthday surprise that my friends had planned for me.
They knew my love for fresh flowers really really well. And this man’s hokum spoiled both the surprise and my birthday for me. I stomped back to his desk and asked him, again suppressing my anger, “What is this doctor? The flowers are gone! They are all droopy and spoilt. Not even on single rose is upright on its stem. Why is it all limp?” Dr. Kamat appeared to be taken aback. For first time he looked at loss of words and when he spoke he said in simple words, “I am sorry. I didn’t know about that. I went now to get these roses from the delivery guy. He couldn’t find this place, so I asked him to be where he was and went there to get it.”
I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or scream at him. But I kept my calm and asked him what had happened. So with all innocence Dr. Kamath narrated the story.
At about 9 am the delivery guy had called in asking for the direction. So he gave it to him. But to make things a little bit more fun he gave the directions in cryptic. He got everything correct except the last one. It took him four hours and when the Doctor realized that his direction giving had the delivery guy go far away from the clinic, who refused to come back; he decided to go an pick it up himself.
I swallowed my bitterness and asked, “what was the last clue for direction?” He said with full earnestness, “A champion of downtrodden leads the way… And he couldn’t understand that it was the statue of Dr. Ambedkar pointing towards here. He went to MG road stood by Mahatma’s statue! Could you believe it?!”
I couldn’t believe that this guy sitting here was a doctor who killed my flowers, let alone believe anything else…
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This is part of the series on Descriptive Adjectives and words for Creative Writing
To learn the ” meaning ” of an adjective or word from the story. Stories are known as fiction because they have fictitious characters.
An acerbic criticism of some imaginary
( gulling, gamey, clamant, exigent, blabbing, gabbling, palavering, crotchety, inveigling, cantankerous, blarneying, wheedling, chousing ) women.
Strange is this world …. Even the most harridan woman expects her husband to be uxorious.
Reading all the stories will teach you most useful, practical, adjectives for women. The verbs explain what women do in the stories.
Make sure you see
and
https://skmclasses.wordpress.com/accolades-and-appreciations-received-from-students-and-parents/
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acerbic – Sour or bitter in taste. Harsh or corrosive in tone. “an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose”.
gulling – Make a fool or dupe of. Gull – Fool or hoax. codding. twitting – Harass with persistent criticism or carping.
carping – Persistent petty and unjustified criticism. Raise trivial objections.
caviling. chicaning. chousing – Defeat someone through trickery or deceit. jockeying, shafting
gamey – Suggestive of sexual impropriety. racy.
clamant – Conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry. Demanding attention. “clamant needs”. clamorous.
strident – Being sharply insistent on being heard. “strident demands”. Unpleasantly loud and harsh. sibilant. spirant. fricative. continuant.
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exigent – Demanding attention. “regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous”. Requiring precise accuracy.
“became more exigent over his pronunciation”.
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blabbing – blabbering – Divulge confidential information or secrets. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly. gabbling.
maundering. prating. clacking. gibbering. palavering. peaching. piffling, Piffle, prattling.
tattling – Prone to communicate confidential information. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly.
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inveigling – Influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering. blarneying.
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wheedling – The act of urging by means of teasing or flattery.
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harridan – A scolding (even vicious) old woman. nagger.
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vicious – (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering. “vicious kicks”. Having the nature of vice.
Bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure. Marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful. “vicious gossip”.
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uxorious – Foolishly fond of or submissive to your wife.
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huffy – Quick to take offence. Roused to anger. “stayed huffy a good while”.
hollering – A very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal). Utter a sudden loud cry.
beefing – Complain. grousing. squawking. Utter a harsh abrupt scream. skreighing. screaking. whining. yawping. yammering. wrawling. yowling.
scheming – Concealing crafty designs for advancing your own interest. “a scheming wife”; “a scheming gold digger”.
Scheme – Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner.
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A truthful summary of huffy women is given at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIpmML49hMU
The best site to prepare for GRE, SAT, GMAT, TOEFL, IB, English skmclasses. Learn tough, rare words by reading short stories.
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Top 10 rare words, Top 10 adjectives for women, Top 10 rare words are tiny compared to
Top 100 rare words, Top 100 adjectives for women, Top 100 rare words;
or say Top 1000 rare words, Top 1000 adjectives for women, Top 1000 rare words. You get all of these here.
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