The Irony of the ‘Erroneous’

Inspired by my uncle, I have been amazed and love to know ‘words’ since my school days. His thick dictionary and other books were always at my disposal, and I passionately tried to learn new words. This was how I stayed engaged with my studies.

One day, I came across the word ‘erroneous’, but it was misspelled as “IRRONEOUS”—not in a notebook, but in a 12th-grade biology course book. I relentlessly searched for this word but couldn’t find it. Though the internet had made an entry, I had no idea about it, nor did I have a personal phone.

My frequent searches ended in failure. Interestingly, after almost a year, I found this word correctly spelled in another book. That was our life. I am not claiming to be a victim. Nor do I intend to portray myself as unfortunate. Every student belonging to a middle-class family encountered similar issues. I was lucky enough to have books around me. A literate family. A guide at home. Many lacked every necessary facility, yet did better owing to their determination, dedication, and discipline of time. They explored every avenue to unearth knowledge. Even from the limited information available, they derived the best. They relied on quality in the absence of quantity. As a result, they shone across different horizons of education. Most of them produced magnum opuses and works of high merit. They reached the highest rung of the ladder of success, excelled in various fields, and emerged successful.

Today’s story is completely different. The entire situation is not hunky-dory and students do experience challenges of a unique nature. Yet, they are surrounded by luxuries. They have access to huge amounts of information. In fact, they have everything at their fingertips. They do have choices to make- choice of comparing the content, of choosing the best content, and of checking its authenticity.

Just by entering a keyword, one can not only find a word’s meaning but also its etymology, synonyms, antonyms, history of usage, pronunciation, and various ways to use it. Never will they take a year to replace IRRONEOUS with accurate ERRONEOUS. While other hurdles are to be considered, students must not miss the chance of enlightening themselves to the fullest. If a student lags behind in present times, he/she is certainly unfortunate.

Tailpiece: In contemporary times, students must seize the opportunity to ensure that technology and facilities are leveraged optimally for the best results. They need to think, decide, and pick out what will make sense in their life and help in shaping their future. If we can’t match the greatness of the heroes of our rich past, we can still uphold their legacy and be contributors to our nation.

Zeeshan Rasool Khan is a columnist.