I Hate Lousy Spelling

I don’t have stats to prove my point but I believe that the most common spelling error in written English among literate people today is the interchangeable use of its and it’s. People all around, some indubitably better with their English, surprise me with this mistake that they so generously commit. A few weeks ago, one dear friend of mine had a detailed conversation with me on the changing trends of the written language. He was mighty pissed off with the double-‘errors’ in the title of an upcoming film – I Hate Luv Storys. I argued that this is an intentional ‘error’ and certainly not an act of ignorance, on which he said – these irresponsible ‘errors’ on something as public and omnipresent as a movie poster/trailer is further going to screw up the spelling sense of the new generation. As Godard believes, “…the cinema both gives to life and takes from it.” I agree with my friend. But I am more forgiving in instances like this. I generally have no problem with people who make conscious spelling ‘errors’ to look cool. But I hate it when it comes to the interchangeable use of the derivatives of it mentioned above. I can not believe that this is done intentionally. And I fail to buy the excuse that it is a ‘small mistake’ that someone overlooked. There is hell lot of difference between its and it’s, enough to make a tolerant, non-judgmental man like me go crazy. In the next email that this friend of mine sent me, he too had committed the same error, and yes, his English is better than mine, any given day. What more, this film that we are talking about ends with the text: Its not a love story. Its a saga.

(Hey! I just realized something. While typing the last three words of the last paragraph, MSWord tried to correct me by adding an apostrophe automatically. I had to go back and delete it. How is it possible then, in this world of green and red error marks that come automatically on our typed documents, to repeatedly commit errors like these?)

On a different note:
I watch most movies at Fun Republic since I shifted to Andheri. After the show ended this noon and I walked back to my home I realized that the two buildings closest to the theatre are Yash Raj Films Studios and Balaji Telefilms. Not that I didn’t know, but it just looked more apparent today. The climax of I Hate Luv Storys has a line: Aur dialogues yaad nahin aa rahe, sab use ho gaye hain. So true. I really don’t blame the writer-director.