Oh my word Carat, carrot, cravat

The Kapur family likes carrots and 24 carats gold! A healthy mix? The head of the family is mostly seen on social occasions wearing cravats. Indian kitchens may not have carrots but they may have a gram or kilogram of gold in 20-carats or 24-carats gold. Carat is a unit of weight for precious metals, stones and pearls. 200 milligrams is one carat; and formerly carat is any of several units of weight varying from 89 to 212 milligrams – the weight of a carob seed.

Carat is also the measurement of the purity of gold. 24 carat is the purest form of gold. She got a 24-carat bracelet as a gift from her grandmother. Lila, the Godmother of Josephine gave her 22-carat necklace to her godchild Josephine’s new-born daughter. Across India, many gold buyers prefer to have only 24-carats gold let it be in one gram or half a kilo, Carat is abbreviated as ct. The American spelling is karat.

Carrot is a plant with a long pointed (conical in shape) orange root: the root is edible. We may eat carrot but may not relish it but certainly relish the carrot halwa. Carrot halwa is a popular north Indian sweet-dish which many households make it at home, available in all the sweetshops such as Bikanerwala, Aggarwal’s, and also available as a dessert in hotels and restaurants. Carrot is also a salad vegetable.

Carrot is also mixed with meats: boiled beef and carrots. Figuratively, carrot refers to a reward, or punishment promised to someone in order to persuade him or her to do something. Unless the government offers carrots to the taxpayers, and the would-be taxpayers how could the rest be motivated in making them pay for the country’s tax system?

The carrot and the stick is an idiom meaning the hope of a reward or a threat of punishment in order to make someone to do something. My parents offered me the carrot and the stick for the result of examinations: if I perform well there will be a carrot (bike as a gift), if I did not perform well there will be a stick (to stay at home and look after the family business of running a shop).

Many families have a carrot-and-stick approach towards their kids. Carroty is an adjective: movie stars often are seen in carroty (orange-red colour) attires, and also our sadhus and sages. Cravat is a fabric worn as a necktie by men. Models dazzled in carroty clothes and 24-carat ornaments with some women even sporting cravats.