Pure-veg, mast-melons and other sweet & sour word salads

The art of communication is like building a rope bridge. Both usually begin with someone throwing a line that reaches the person standing on the other side of a chasm. Sometimes, you aim correctly, and the recipient picks up the line, anchors it securely, and you go back and forth till you have built an aerial passage. Often, even after you tie a rock to the string to give it heft and aim carefully, it either falls in the ravine that separates the two of you or hits them on the head, and then they throw four rocks back in your direction.

This happens in both personal and public discourse, like with Zomato last week when they announced their ‘pure-veg’ delivery service. Interestingly, food delivery services have a precedent in a rather peculiar place, the animal kingdom. Treehoppers and geckos have a similar system. Instead of an app, the gecko uses a series of taps to communicate that it wants food, and the treehopper throws a bead of honeydew right at its mouth.