Vocative

Vibhakti(declensions) in Kannada was memorized by us as kids without understanding anything about them. That does not mean we spoke all ungrammatical sentences - no, we spoke pure kannada. But how does the grammar work - why do we need these vibhaktis? No, we didn't bother - as long as we got our marks in Kannada.

Now 50 years later when I am trying to learn other languages, I am realizing its significance.

 
So a funny case is vocative case - which is used to call a person. O Rama, where are you? And so on.

So in Sanskrit, vocative case of Rama is Hey rama. The famous last words of Mahatma Gandhi and also title of a famous Hindi film which was way ahead of its times.

An article in today's paper mentioned this phrase - very apt term in today's context. Context being the beginning of new era in India - what is this new era, depends on your interpretation and which side you lean towards.

So hey ram, we are seeing all old words and old worlds being obsolete and new words and new ideologies being brought in.  Without much protest. You and me are muuka prekshakas. Locked down voluntarily in our homes, and lips sealed. So let us be witnesses.