MPs warned to mind ‘Ps and Qs’”, (Sunday Star, March 20) caught my eye. Not because it is also, in part, the title of a song belted out by rap artiste, Kano, but because I had M-I-N-D in mind at that point in time.

Incidentally, this call to the MPs to mind how they behave in Parliament also brought to mind a post on the Net: Mind Your (Parliamentary) Language (March 5, 2010) by David Porter, a freelance writer on Suite 101.com.

According to Porter, some commonplace expressions we use today had their origins in Britain’s Parliament.

For example, the whip, toe the line ... the latter being exactly what the Dewan Rakyat Speaker is telling our YBs to be mindful of. He has to crack the whip often – “It looks like every term, I have to remind you to abide by the rules.” Pity.

Let me add fuddle duddle to the list, and cross swords, an all-time favourite verbal workout in the august house, never mind (yes, it’s a two-word term) if some MPs routinely remain unskilled in the art of polemics.

Actually, the nature of our MPs’ Parliamentary discourse is hardly what I had in mind for our Mind Our English column this time round.

But, while still on the subject, the frequent name-calling, unsavoury and unparliamentary expressions and innuendos that keep surfacing, the bullish (inter) locking of horns ... are all indelibly registered in our minds.

So, perhaps the country’s citizenry is cautious of emulating some of our MPs’ unparliamentary behaviour and brand of discourse (be it Bahasa Melayu or English).

Well, the like must have been weighing on George Orwell’s mind when he wrote Politics And The English Language”, in 1946. He lamented then (it still applies), “Our civilization is decadent and our language ... so the argument runs ... must inevitably share in the general collapse.” That surely must have been a load off his mind, and mine.

Now, getting back to ... I think we are of like mind on this point ..., you know how waywardly wandering the mind can get, right? Only mental discipline can train the mind to be mindful of its conduct. There’s also the mind over matter phenomenon.

Well, it is said that we have too much mind. Indeed, an inundation of the invasive kind – of a constant stream of thoughts, ideas, concepts, memories, images, judgements, running commentaries ... all intruding themselves upon our consciousness.

Mind-boggling, isn’t it? Mind-bending, even. This seemingly mindless and chaotic flitting about from one thing to another is inherently illustrative of our immense mental agility, capacity and capability. It constitutes our mind map. We are wired this way so we can storm the brain to think deeply and richly, to explore, associate and connect, for a holistic understanding of a particular experience or event.

Now, a swirl of thoughts continue to leap to mind, each with a mind of its own as it were.

Here’s one that cast my mind back to when I was growing up; to the memory of the legendary screen goddess Lin Dai! Being a theatre enthusiast, I caught Ang Tau Mui recently. It was a performance that captured the heart and mind of the audience that night, because to my mind, most could relate to it.

Never mind if some were too young, for instance, to know who Lin Dai was. I was an admirer! Her elegant beauty adorned household calendars in days gone by. I had more than one such calendar (the kind you have to tear off a leaf daily to remain current!) in my home.

Her captivating image is lodged in the innermost recesses of my mind. Back to the performance, the stream of consciousness technique, which parallels how our mind is wired to operate, gave voice and flesh to the random but material thoughts that tracked the raw experiences of Ang Tau Mui.

Listen! Noise pollution is on the rise in my neighbourhood, ranging from the tintinnabulation kind to the irritatingly clangorous din. The kind that disrupts human being-ness, and rudely robs you of your peace of mind. The kind that makes you want to jump out of your skin, the kind that is enough to wake the dead, the kind that drives me out of my mind!

It also ranges in the indiscriminate use of aids in hawking. From the technologically enhanced to the old-fashioned but high-decibel honking ... to loud-hailer hollering ... to in-your-face, loud-mouthed, door-to-door persistent peddling of unsolicited wares and services. The thought of complaining has been preying on my mind, but should I really speak my mind? To whom? I am also told it will avail nothing.

All right, before my mind continues to run wild ..., I know you can easily obtain from any good dictionary, a list of “mind” related expressions and their use.

However, please bear in mind that not many learners will actually put their mind to doing that sort of thing – with any word or expression, for that matter.

Yet, many, including language teachers, lament their lack of vocabulary and proficiency skills and say they don’t know what to do. At least, read the Mind Our English column, I remind them! The “mind” here means be careful of how you use English, how you need to give it your attention.

Many of us write with you learners in mind, mind you. In fact, as I write this, I am hoping that your occasional or chance reading of this column (especially on Thursdays, when Fadzilah Amin, the wholesome MOE family doc, is in; Fridays fortnightly, when grammar specialist, Dr Lim, wields his baton), will prove helpful to you.

Finally, regular MOE readers, I hope you don’t mind this seemingly mindless exercising of my one-track mind.

No, really, don’t mind me because I am going to mind my own business now, I promise ... Guess what? I am actually done, mind you!

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