GOING “GAGA”

All of us have among our acquaintances and relatives, or have come across a person whose behaviour is unusual at times. These persons who certainly are of an advanced age look normal and mature, till they open their mouth.

 They become very exuberant on very minor and trivial matters of someone or someone’s actions that it seems odd to everyone.

Whether it in liking or disliking someone or something; their adjectives used in this regard are excessive and look too sugary or brutal as the case maybe.

The reaction of people is to smile and ignore the actions of such persons as they are senior in age. Mostly such actions are attributed to the geriatric condition of these persons. In short people conclude that the person is “gaga”

We encounter the phrase “going gaga” or “gone gaga” etc, and understand it and its meaning only in one way. By going deeper into it, interesting interpretations are opened up.

The word ‘gaga’ is an adjective, which means that it is used to describe someone, or a condition of someone

 Let us see what different dictionaries have to say for this word…

(1) Cambridge dictionary gives its meaning as …

‘gaga’ --  MENTALLY UNCLEAR, unable to think clearly and make decisions because of old age:

example.- My granny's 94 and she's a bit ‘gaga’.

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(2) Google gives its meaning as ….

‘gaga’ -- To receive or REACT  TO ANYTHING in an EXCESSIVE  DEGREE.

example -  He always goes ‘gaga’ over his favourite band's newest album.

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(3) Webster dictionary gives its meaning as ….

‘gaga’ -- CRAZY, FOOLISH

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Courtesy TOI

(4) Longmans dictionary gives its meaning as ….

‘gaga’ --  an INSULTING WORD used to describe someone who is CONFUSED because they are old

example --If you say that someone is ‘gaga’, you mean that they cannot think clearly any more, especially because they are old.

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Thus ‘going gaga’ boils down to mean that –

* The person mentioned is in a doddering senile stage.

* The person is mentally not clear of what is to be said.

* The person is not capable of making decisions

* The person’s opinions are not worth anything,

* The person cannot think clearly and/or rationally anymore.

* The referred person is confused; hence whatever they say is to be overlooked.

* The person is crazy and foolish.

* The person’s extra gush of emotions is because they are over-reacting.

* The person is of advanced age hence of lowered mental condition.

 

Courtesy pexels.com

How to recognise a gaga person ? This is in fact quite easy. They use strong adjectives to describe very trivial things; such as ‘amazing, superb, extra-ordinary, out-of-this-world,  etc’ to describe ordinary activities of their favourite persons.

Dishes made by the same persons may be described as ‘heavenly, super se bhi duper, etc’.

In dislikes these persons tend to dismiss the affected person as if not worth mentioning even. Total dismissal.

When we come across such a person, we smile and overlook their utterances, because socially we do not wish to hurt someone, but in our innermost classification we have them labeled and stowed away as “gone gaga”

The condition and identity of such ‘gaga’ persons was hidden until a few years ago, as they being in advanced age had minimal interactions with the outside world and with younger persons. Their identity and idiosyncrasies were known  only to the close household.

These ‘gaga’ persons having very less contact with the outside world find the proliferation of social media a boon to put forth their utterances. At last they can say whatever they want, whether anyone listens to them or not. They think that rest of the world is lining up to grab the pearls falling from their lips, they can be heard by the people out there. They have grabbed the social media platforms to vent forth their bottled up verbosity.

Alas therefore they are thus no more hidden. Social media being a double edged sword, they are exposed to the world by their craziness in group chats. People snigger and they become a laughing stock behind their backs. Everyone now knows that they are “gaga”.

The meaning given by Longmans dictionary seems very apt.

Perhaps you have such person in your social media group. So just smile and let them have their moment of enjoyment

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DISCLAIMER – The above is only an expanded definition of the word “gaga” or “gone gaga”, and does not in any way refer to any person Known or Unknown, among acquaintances or any Social Media Group.  Any similarity with anyone is purely coincidental, and should not be taken as referring to any person living or ‘gone gaga’ !!