“Sorry for being late, but I went to see Shyam. You know, my friend who lives in Ramanujam Street.”
“I haven’t been to that part of the town in a while. Has it changed much?”
“Not really! I think I did a mistake when I said...”
“One does not ‘do’ a mistake, one ‘makes’ a mistake. Sujatha gets really upset when people make mistakes.”
“I don’t understand why she does. We all make mistakes. Tell me, is it ‘living in’ or ‘living on’ a street? I always get confused.”
“One can live in or live on a particular street or road. As far as the meaning is concerned, there’s no difference between the two. Many years ago, my cousins lived on Eldams Road.”
“Sujatha, as you know, lives in Prince Street. By the way, I met her yesterday, and she’s decided not to join either TCS or Infosys. She said she was going to help her father run his business.”
“That’s a smart thing to do, if you ask me. You know what they say! It’s better to be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion.”
Leadership role
“I’ve never heard that expression before. What does it mean?”
“It’s an expression mostly used in informal contexts. What you’re trying to say is that it’s better to be in a leadership position in a small organisation than...”
“Than work for a big company where you don’t have much to do. Instead of giving orders to people, you merely follow orders given by others.”
“Exactly! Being a leader in a small company is worth a lot more than being a follower in a big company.”
“How about this example? An MNC offered to double Sridhar’s salary. But he chose to stay with the startup company because he thought it was better to be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion.”
“That’s a good example. His father did the exact opposite. He jumped at the offer made by an MNC. He didn’t realise that being the head of a dog was better than being the tail of a lion. Now, the poor man is stuck. Doesn’t know what to do.”
“His two kids have great jobs. Why doesn’t he just retire?”
“That’s what Sridhar wants. He thinks it’s high time his father retired.”
“High time he retired? Tell me, is there a difference between ‘high time he retired’ and ‘it’s time he retired’? Some people say...”
“When you say it’s ‘high time’ he retired, what you’re suggesting is that it’s about time he retired. The expression also carries with it the sense that the person should have retired a long time ago. The retirement is overdue.”
“How about this example? It’s high time you study for the test.”
“The expression ‘high time’ is usually followed by the past tense form of the verb. It’s high time you studied for the test.”
“I’m sure your parents think that it’s high time you got married.”
“I think it’s high time you went home.”
* * * * *
I’m not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I’m afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. Alexander the Great
The author teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. upendrankye@gmail.com
