Query on the term *mistri*

[Robert J. Zydenbos]

On Sat, 28 Feb 1998, S Krishna wrote:

> The mistake that I made in the posting seems to be in my refering
> to Raja Ramanna as an "eminent nuclear physicist"...which has given
> the people the impression that the reason why I'd quoted him is
> because he was a physicist...

> I realise that there are some people who think that a background in
> Engg/Science is qualification enough to comment on everything from
> geography to metaphysics to astrology, but I am not one of them
> and I'd therefore appreciate people not reading in meanings and
> attributions that were never intended in the first place.....

In all fairness, you should consider carefully what you had written
earlier:

> >On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, S Krishna wrote:
> >
> >> The word is most certainly from English...the English word "maste
> >> becamed transformed into "mEstrI"..We have this on the word of
> >> Dr M.V.Raja Ramanna( the nuclear physicist) who discusses this wh
> >[...]

"Most certainly" and "the word of" suggest that R. is an authority,
while obviously he is not. And I suppose you will agree that there
is this unfortunate recent history of bogus 'scientificism' on the
list.

So I hope you won't blame Dominik, me, and people like us too much
for the way we read your message.

RZ