Oh my word Incarcerate, Incinerate, Incarnate

Once the human body is incinerated (destroyed by burning) will it incarnate (born again) irrespective of whether one was incarcerated (jailed) or not? Nestle, the manufacturer of Maggi noodles, has decided to destroy the stocks of noodles following a ban in the several states because of ‘beyond permitted levels of lead’ in them.

The stock of Maggi noodles was destroyed in various places in India. The ACC Cement factory at Wadi incinerated the banned stocks of Maggi noodles which were seized from different parts of southern Indian states, and Maharashtra. The government has identified 5 cement factories in the country to incinerate the stocks of noodles. Irrespective of incinerating noodles, will anyone be incarcerated for lead in the noodles?

Incarcerate means to put in prison, send someone to jail for a wrongdoing, subjecting someone to confinement, locking up someone for crimes, detaining. The grammatical variants of the verb incarcerate are incarcerates, incarcerated, incarcerating (verbs), incarceration and incarcerator (nouns).

Many Indian freedom fighters were incarcerated during India’s struggle for Independence from the British colonial rule. Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for speaking up for the rights of native South Africans which he vividly describes in his autobiography ‘Long Walk to Freedom’. The police can incarcerate anyone on the grounds of terrorism charges.

Whether you like it or not, you commit a crime, you could be incarcerated by the police. Incinerate means to destroy something usually waste material by burning, to burn, consume by fire, reduce to ashes, cremate. Hindus incinerate the dead bodies while Christians and Muslims bury the dead bodies. In Indian towns and cities, one can find mountains of garbage due to lack of incinerating plants. In some countries it is mandatory to have incinerating plants to destroy the household waste.

Incarnate means embodying in human form, manifested in the form of human being; religiously or spiritually speaking a deity or a spirit or a god can incarnate in the form of human beings; god incarnate in flesh, in physical form, in bodily form. Incarnation means taking birth in flesh and blood; conception; birth of a sentient being (Jesus, Krishna, Ram, Dalai Lama,…).

Because one can go to hell for committing sins, some restrain from committing them and not to be incarnated again as the human being. Incarnate functions as an adjective and verb, and incarnation is a noun. Some Indian Hindus believe that Lord Vishnu could incarnate again as the 11th avatar. When everything goes wrong, everyone does that hurts everyone, when there is hope for decent living, God can incarnate on Earth, from Heaven.

Kovuuri G Reddy