The Hindu Business Line : `Wherever sorrow is, relief would be'

THE tsunami toll has crossed two lakh. Almost in every nook of the world, there are efforts to mobilise resources for the relief of the affected people, reminding one of a line in the New Testament: "Every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren."

The Union Cabinet has announced Rs 2,731 crore as the first phase of assistance towards relief, though in sharp relief is the fact that about 30 per cent of the amount is to be given as loan at 7 per cent. In due course, tsunami survivors will gradually return to normalcy, despite relief, because it is never easy to estimate how much of the aid will ultimately reach the beneficiaries after the sieves of the system have had their fill.

However, we may push aside such sceptical unanswerable posers and try coming to terms with `relief'.

Relief is the alleviation or removal of pain, anxiety, or distress, explains Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Aid agencies and NGOs rushing in with relief may well remember this quote from King Henry VI, part III: "Tell thy grief; it shall be eased." Be prepared to hear, "Immediate are my needs, and my relief must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words, but find supply immediate," as in Timon of Athens.

Not all woes can be removed, yet even small gestures may attract compliments such as in The Merchant of Venice: "How true a gentleman you send relief." Though you may not expect thanks, there may be a Francisco of Hamlet to say: "For this relief much thanks: `tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart." Human to human help is explained thus in As You Like It by Silvius: "Wherever sorrow is, relief would be: If you do sorrow at my grief in love, by giving love your sorrow and my grief were both extermined."

Sleepy workers are waking up after reading the latest apex court judgment on the topic. But a sleepy quote of Nicolas de Chamfort is about the therapeutic value of slumber: "Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death".

Change may be a relief, opined Washington Irving, even if were from `bad to worse', as with governments, perhaps. But Irving's insight is from his travels in stagecoach: "It is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place".

Relief comes in cash and kind, changing many hands, and it is probable that sharks lie in wait to bruise the aid, before relief reaches the `oppressed child' that King John would speak of.

The word `relief' is from around 1330, informs www.etymonline.com. The origin is from Anglo-French relif, from Old French relief, meaning `assistance,' though literally it means, `a raising, that which is lifted,' from stressed stem of relever.

In Encarta, you find a hyperlink to `relieve', another word from relever, deriving from "Latin relevare `to raise again, help,' literally `to make light again,' ultimately from levis `light' (source of English `lever')." Relevant too has relevare somewhere!

Lever is something that raises, from Old French lever `to rise or raise,' from Latin levare, from levis `light (source of English levity), says http://encarta.msn.com.

Quite strange because levity means "behaviour intended to be amusing, especially when they are out of keeping with a serious occasion," but the word is from Latin levitas, from levis `light.'

Online Etymology Dictionary explains lever beyond the Latin levare: "From PIE base *le(n)gwh- `light, easy, agile, nimble' (cf. Sanskrit laghuh `quick, small;' Greek elakhys `small,' elaphros `light;' O.C.S. liguku, Lith. lengvas `light;' O.Ir. laigiu `smaller, worse.'"

Lever has `levy' in the family, because the taxman's word means act of raising; and also `elevate', that is `lift up or raise', from ex + levare.

Similarly, `carnival', the time of merrymaking, is from carnelevare meaning `to remove meat,' or more literally `raising flesh,' deriving from Latin caro `flesh' + levare, though another explanation is that the word is from carne vale or `flesh, farewell'.

Frank P. Louchheim can add levity to relief: "Handled creatively, getting fired allows an executive to actually experience a sense of relief that he never wanted the job he has lost."

Othello may agree: "She's gone. I am abused; and my relief must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage."

Relief map shows hills and valleys by depicting heights of land surface. On www.nagapattinam.tn.nic.in you can see, not a relief map, but a map of relief work, showing clearly Government Hospital, affected villages, and feeding centres. Tax relief is always music for taxpayers, because it softens the tax bite. For instance, www.tn.gov.in announces: "Receipt will be given immediately on credit of the amount contributed to the Fund Account which is entitled for 100 per cent tax relief under Income Tax Act 1961."

`Relief cowboy' is slang for humanitarian aid worker who travels to disaster areas and combat zones to supervise the administration of international relief, informs Encarta.

In extreme difficulty it is The Tempest that may come to mind: "My ending is despair, unless I be relieved by prayer." But, wait, Mark Twain can distract, saying, "Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." However, to provide relief to relief, let me conclude with a Seneca quote: "Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all."

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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