-Brian Mendonça
The writing, though small, in front of me was
unmistakable. ‘Shred it forever’ it exhorted. The shirt was being sported by an
adolescent boy. His shirt had numerous small designs on it. The motifs were
vague missives like ‘Enjoy your days’, icons of sleepy owls and of course the
shredding advice.
Why would shredding be so important so as to feature
so prominently on a shirt repeatedly? It almost proclaimed that the boy was
part of some secret cult whose shredding rituals were conducted in secret.
My generation were taught to preserve things. Be it
paper, household items, or clothes for that matter. Shredding was anathema. It
was never on the agenda. At the most one’s reputation could be shredded – as is
the case with many nowadays.
But practising shredding as a fine art was something
else. I mean, if teenagers succumb to the propensity of shredding everything in
sight, what would remain for posterity?
The writing is on the wall. Just look at the jeans
people wear nowadays. Even if you shell out a sum of four figures you simply
cannot lay your hands on a pair of decent solid colour ungashed jeans. All you
get are the stonewashed variety with rents that would make a door mouse feel at
home.
Ripped jeans make a statement that you are with it.
You have so much moolah that you can afford to flaunt the beggarly look. I find that rather obscene. It’s like using
someone else’s pain to make a fashion statement. But distressed denims are not
everybody’s cup of tea. As Troy Patterson writes, though denim is democratic,
‘Claiming tatters as finery is a game not everyone can play.’
‘There’s not a shred of truth in what s/he says.’ is
a statement one hears often. ‘My dog tore my homework to shreds,’ is more
creative. ‘Shreded’ is a word often used in kitchen practice, viz. The chicken
roll comes with shredded chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise.’
Creating something and destroying it to shreds seems
fashionable. After fetching a price of one million pounds for a piece of art
titled ‘Girl with balloon’ the artwork slowly shredded itself. This happened at
Sotheby’s, London recently. The artist was a British street artist named Banksy.
When papers needed to be destroyed one is advised to
put them in a paper shredder. That way
no one would be privy to confidential documents.
Shredding is also a style of guitar playing with
fast flurries of notes and discordant tones.*
Not all is musical though. Shredder (2003) is an American slasher film of friends who are at
the mercy of a murderer with a machette.
No doubt, ‘shred’ with all its nihilistic overtones,
is here to stay. Its origins lurk as far back as the year 1000. It stems from ‘screadian’ in Old English which refers
to the language of the Anglo Saxons in
the early middle ages till 1150. It was a term in horticulture to mean prune or
lop off a branch or other growth. (grammarphobia.com)
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*urbandictionary.com Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday 21 October 2018
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