Bonding the Tamil Way

a not-so-subtle critique of modern individualism

Source: Alamy

There’s a word in Tamil that haunts me to this day. பாசம் or paasam. It sounds like “possum” if you drag out the “o.”

பாசம் has no direct translation and no real equivalent in modern English vernacular. Roughly, it points to the dated English word “affection,” except that we have romanticized this word too much recently (and everything else)…