COPE WITH vs COPE UP* WITH

Khaliqur Rahman

Sheila Dixit, in an interview to toi, says "cope up* with" instead of the correct phrase "cope with". 'Cope up* with' is an Indianism that many educated users of English in India speak or write and, as the asterisk of ungrammaticality suggests, it is a deviation from Standard British English.

During her interview, she also points out that she takes European food and she's seen at her dining table with the toi correspondent. You can see the left-over food and lazy knives and forks in their plates.

That brings me to my favourite topic, English and Englishness. I pity, as I always do, the children and grandchildren of dad and grand dad Macaulay who, I believe, has given himself immortality of sorts in the sub-continent.

I don't know what Mulayam Singh eats but he is a hater of English, at least at election times.

We, as a nation, have, it seems, always chosen what is unprofitable. We love Englishness and hate English. We try hard to look Occidental and be perfect in the little Englisnesses that we've fondly clung on to like knife and fork, suit and tie, etc ... and we don't care if our English is imperfect. We want to retain our national identity in the the use of English and lose it almost completely in adopting the cultural Englishness.