"Come in! Come in! How does it feel to be a star?"

"So, what did you think of our play? Did you like it?"

"I quite enjoyed it, actually. It was much better than expected."

"Thank you! You're not lying, are you?"

"Of course not! I really enjoyed the play. And so did a lot of other people. The guy sitting next to me let out a couple of belly laughs. I'm sure you heard it."

"What's a belly laugh?"

"A loud, hearty laugh is usually called a belly laugh. You laugh so loudly that sometimes even your belly shakes!"

"I see. My father laughs like that sometimes. Last week, when I told my famous joke, all I got from my friend was a giggle. What I wanted was a belly laugh."

"You don't always get belly laughs for jokes. Here's another example.I've seldom heard Uma laugh like that. It was a real belly laugh."

"Did you bring anyone with you to watch the play?"

"I certainly did. Ganesh."

"Ganesh! He must have been stepping out every five minutes for a smoke."

"He's kicked the habit."

"Kicked the habit? You can kick a person or thing. How can you kick a habit?"

"When you say that someone has `kicked the habit', what you mean is that he has given something up. He's quit doing something that he used to. He's given it up voluntarily."

"I see. So, what you are saying is that Ganesh has given up smoking."

"Precisely. `Kick the habit' is mostly used in relation to drugs and smoking. But it can..."

"My uncle smokes like a chimney. He's tried to kick the habit several times. But he has never succeeded."

"A lot of people say it's difficult to kick the habit. Ganesh was lucky. It took him over three years to kick the habit."

"Good for him. Did he enjoy the play as well?"

"Yes, he did. There were no belly laughs from him, though.

"Tell me, what can we do to improve? I mean how do we..."

"There were several people who fluffed their lines. Maybe you could..."

"They what?"

"F..l..u..f..f. Rhymes with `stuff' and `puff'. When you fluff something, you make an error or do it incorrectly or badly. So...."

"So what you're saying is that some of the actors kept making mistakes."

"Exactly! During the recording Anuradha fluffed her lines several times."

"At least I didn't fluff my lines."

"True. Sujatha did very well in the written exam, but she fluffed the interview."

"She told me that interviews make her nervous."

"They make a lot of people nervous. In informal contexts, the word fluff can also be used to mean `nonsense' or `irrelevant stuff'. The proposal submitted by the Manager is a lot of fluff."

"How about this example? Whenever my Principal gives a talk, there is always a lot of fluff."

"Sounds good. This will make a good essay if you cut out all the fluff in the first two paragraphs."

"Talking about writing essays, there are a couple that I have to submit the day after tomorrow."

"In that case, you'd better start on them immediately." "

I think I will."


"It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it takes only one of them to scatter it all over the highway." - Evan Esar



S. UPENDRAN

__________________
Regards,
P.R.