Abbreviations, then and now

Abbreviations are the 'in' thing in today's busy lives. One knew in the early 90s simple ones like PAN for Permanent Account Number, ATM for Automated Teller Machine. Once the Internet and mobile phones invaded our lives during the mid-90s, e-mails became even shorter because PDF (Portable Document Format), JPG/JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), DTP (Desktop Printing) and many more were in use. With British and American movies on Prime and Netflix, Stat (short for Latin word Statim), ASAP (for As Soon As Possible), brolly for umbrella, cossie for a swimming costume and many more entered our daily lives.

"Have you spoken to your DQ to tell GOC to inform you?" my civilian brother-in-law had joked with me decades ago when he had no clue about the army's hierarchy or abbreviations. Of course, he is wiser now since his elder brother, too, is a retired brigadier and he himself is now working in a private University where the top few persons are called C-1 to C-5, C indicating surname of the owner. On one occasion I pulled his leg, asking, What has C-1 told C-3? True, the army has many abbreviations (just as IAF and IN). Some appointments have long names, albeit the holder of the appointment may only be a Captain/Major. Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, tenable by a Major: 50 letters, doesn't that sound a mouthful but luckily, it is abbreviated in writing as DAA&QMG and simply as 'DQ' in a conversation!

That appointment is now split into two: Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General and Deputy Assistant Adjutant General or abbreviated DAQMG (still shorter as DQ in conversation) and DAAG. General Staff Officer Grade 3, a Captain (abbreviation GSO-3) is just G-3 in conversation. Take another, General Officer Commanding in Chief, written as GOC-in-C or simply referred to as Army Commander. In fact, there is a whole book of abbreviations common to all three services, Joint Services Staff Duties Manual Volume -II.

Till 15 years ago, teens used simple abbreviations like emgees or brigades to indicate MG Road or Brigade Road in Bangalore. Now universal Teen Text Abbreviations in dozens have crept in, eg, '143: I love you; ATM: At the moment; BRB: Be right back; ICYMI: In case you missed it; POS: Parents over shoulder; SOS: Someone over shoulder; WTPA: Where’s the party at?; WYCM: Will you call me?'

When I was in the Postings Section of Army Headquarters, my four-year-old daughter, having heard me discuss many appointments in abbreviations, started calling me by spelling A..P..P..A, thinking she was using an abbreviation! And now, Abbreviation itself is abbreviated to abvn!