For years, Reader’s Digest advised us It Pays To Enrich Your Word Power (English obviously). I took this earnestly and am still awaiting the promised payment, but every now and then, I do feel the joy of having the word for a feeling, yaniki, though it has been a time of doom and gloom it has also been a time of, woh-kya-kehte-hain… schadenfreude, German for the Punjabi phrase, badi thand payi kaleje vich, yaniki happiness at someone else’s misery, especially someone who was previously lording it over you.

Consider that this week we witnessed the alarming sight of white supremacists in furs and horns, storming the US Capitol. As everybody shook their heads, it was grave utterances about the demise of democracy from one side of their mouths while from the other it was kabhi meme meme kabhi shabd shabd yaniki, schadenfreude.