First and foremost, I do not wish to upset all the people reading this that only speak English and cringe inside when they see words from other languages and in other scripts. I understand the frustration and sympathize with it. There are very good reasons to want simplicity and clarity in rhetoric, especially when addressing complicated subjects. Jumping languages and scripts is added ambiguity in meaning and can definitely make an idea matter less than it should. It is perhaps extremely reckless of me to do it deliberately, but as you can guess, I am about to contradict this common sense in favor of what I consider to be a higher aim: wholeness. I think that I would really struggle to convey my ideas whole and intact if I don’t use terms from all the languages that I speak and understand.
Those that have been exposed to different languages already know that most words and phrases and especially the meanings do not ever perfectly translate from one language to another- there is always part of the meaning and context lost in translation. English is actually very well known across the world as the language that swallows up whole words along with their meanings from the most number of foreign languages, and I believe that that is part of what makes it such a powerful language worldwide. I want to encourage this further and help my American friends see that there is a lot of richness in matter and meaning that they are missing out on in their misguided attempt at staying monolingual, not least because the English they speak is already a good mix of various “foreign” languages. That being said, I wholeheartedly appreciate all of you who are willing to indulge me in my stubborn and sometimes convoluted ways.
So in the interest of adding some much needed rich complexity:
शलाका उवाच् (pronounced Shə-la-ka U-va-ch), literally translates to “Shəlaka speaks/invokes” where, Shəlaka is a female name in Sanskrut and all other Indian languages. The name Shəlake has many contextual meanings to it, such as a sprout, a javelin, a dart, a scalpel, lighting bolt, a flame, a needle, a pencil, a small stick, a domino, a sharp cliff, or a narrow mountain peak. The meaning of the word is very specifically, whatever lies at the intersection of all of the things mentioned and it is used as such in context. It is also one of the names of the Hindu goddess Parvati and therefore links all the other meanings to the presence of the divine feminine archetype.
I have chosen this name for my publication, hopefully not in vain, so that I may channel a Shəlaka in my future invocations. I hope I can rely on the readers to tell me if I am successful in this.