Aditi Lahiri

Dear Mohanan,

Many happy returns of the day and - "janmodiner bishesh shubheccha".

With my very best wishes, Aditi

Miriam Butt

Here's to a person who can move unfazedly from discussing finite-state morphology at 6 am to taking apart hermenuetics at 10 am with nary a pause inbetween. And to feed the education interest, here's a link to Germany's prime educationary mouse:

http://www.wdrmaus.de/index2.phtml?lang=en

The Archangelis

Peter Sells

Mohanan -- it's been great to know you and interact with you over the years, and to try to figure out what is real and worthwhile, and what is only apparently so. Many happy returns and try not to deconstruct any aspects of your birthday! (Well, not yet.) Best Wishes, Peter

Tham

Shiao Wei

Dear Mo, as before, in place of a lengthy poem: happy birthday and thank you for teaching me to worry about real things and how to unravel them.  It took a while, but I think I'm getting a little closer.  Thank you also for remaining the role model you have always been, both intellectually and otherwise.  That last remark doesn't apply to your office desk.  But it could apply to your pickled chilli.

Matthew Y Chen

WELCOME TO THE SEXAGENARIANS' CLUB. LIFE ONLY GETS BETTER AFTER 60!

Cheers, Matthew

Beth Levin

Mohanan -- A few more birthday wishes to add to the many that are pouring in to your virtual birthday celebration from those who have known, admired and respected you over the years.

Paul Kiparsky

Dear Mohanan,

Happy birthday! It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since we met... You and Tara had come to visit us in Pune all the way from Hyderabad, but that trip led to a so much longer one. I learned a lot from you at MIT and at Stanford, most of it through arguments with you, which I thoroughly enjoyed, even the exasperating ones!

And thank you for your hospitality in Singapore, and the patience with which you put up with me. (I don't know what I would have done without you that time I screwed up my trip to India --- you know what I'm referring to.)

Now, as your adventurous journey continues with another new chapter, my best wishes are with you. May you continue to spread rationality and a love of beauty and humanity wherever you are.

Paul

Jean Ann & Bruce Long Peng

Dear Mohanan:
Happy 60th!!
We are so pleased to have been a part of your intellectual life at NUS and to have the chance to participate in REDPILL now!! We remember the days when we had easy access to you very fondly, and we both know we learned soo much from you and from Tara in our many discussions. We've thought of you about a million times since we left Singapore, as we've developed our TESOL program and as we've continued to try to learn how best to teach linguistics, to teach *students*. Have an outstanding birthday in equatorial Singapore from your old friends in arctic Central New York. As we write, you're sweating and we're freezing, but hey, we're all still here!!

With love and abiding respect,
Jean and Bruce

Jane Simpson

From Kerala to Hyderabad
They're trumpeting their glee
From Singapore to Cambridge
That Mohanan's now sixty
And it's time to celebrate
A Malayali linguist
Who's among the very great.
He's never met a problem
That he hasn't tried to beat
And never met a chili
that he didn't want to eat.
So K P we thank you
For the sixty years you've spent
Sharing with your friends
Time and love and kindness,
And cheerful arguments!

John Goldsmith

Dear Mohanan: My very best birthday wishes to you. They say that linguistics’ is a young person’s game: may you play it all your life!

Regards, John 

The Anttilas

dearest Mo
dearest funny Uncle Mo
you are so kindly
you are more like mom's guru
who found you in the green city
and weren't we very glad you came our way?
see dad will honor you
because you smile so sweetly
they will toast your great deeds
i hug you close and tight
just as Aunt Tara would,
:
and my mama, dada and i will take hands
and looking up to our wonderful friend
we'll dance and sing
"Happy Birthday"
[Apologies to e. e. cummings]
Claire, Vivienne and Arto

Bao Zhiming

六十而耳顺, or at sixty, my ears are smoothed. --Confucius

Happy Birthday! And don't try to unpack the meaning.

Morris Halle

Dear Mohanan,
Congratulations on your sixtieth birthday.  Having, alas, passed that landmark years ago, I am happy to report that there are still many good days ahead, though like the rest of our future, their number cannot be known. So here is wishing you that there are none but good days and many of them  in your future.

Morris Halle

John McCarthy

With the greatest respect and my very best wishes on your birthday.
John McCarthy

Alex Alsina

Tony Hung

Dear Mohanan,

When Bernard Shaw said, ‘He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches’, he obviously hadn’t met you.  There are several people from whom I’ve learned a great deal about Linguistics, and some from whom I’ve learned something about teaching, but I can’t think of anyone else from whom I’ve learned so much about both Linguistics and teaching (to say nothing of Indian vegetarian food and martial arts movies).  If only more linguists had your insights and your dedication to teaching, our discipline would be an even healthier one.

Many happy returns for the next 60 years!

Tony

James Huang

Dear Mohanan: When I walk pass the Bratle Square near the site of the original House of China, I am often reminded of the dinner we had together during the first few weeks of our time here, when you used up a whole bottle of their chili oil and asked for more.  That was over 28 years ago, and my life has been enriched over the years by friends like you.  It was great to see you and family again last year, and I hope we do that again before long.  Happy 60th, with many returns!    Jim Huang (and Emily)

Carol Neidle

Dear Mohanan,

Birthday greetings from Boston! It was great to see you, Tara, and Ammu on the occasion of our class reunion. Hope that everyone is doing well, and that you'll be back again to visit.

In the meantime, wishing you a most excellent birthday, - Carol

Linda Uyechi

Happy Birthday Mo!

Thanks to you I'm still trying to sort out the possible from the impossible and approach every topic as if it were being studied by Martians. I suspect I would make better progress in my endeavors if I were able to wake regularly at 5 a.m. and focus on my work - but there's no one around to make me tea! 

Can't even start to count the ways that you have inspired me. Well, I could start to count, but it would take reams of web pages.  So to be brief - to honor you on the occasion of your 60^th birthday we will test the hot-ity of our local chilis, watch the Matrix trilogy, ponder the Red Pill, retire for the evening at 9 p.m., and dream up a scheme to try and capture some of the impact you have had on us all.   

Aloha! Linda (with Steve and KimiAnn)

p.s. Here's a couple of distractions for you.  What would a Martian make of these?

tabla and taiko (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNtpqj7ij0g);

hearing and Deaf (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjGEA8L1ovw ).

Mary Dalrymple

Thanks for the inspiration over the years!

The Pulleyblanks

Mohanan: Have a fanstastic birthday!! We will be there in spirit!!

Mohanan’s Birthday Recipe

Boil 2 litres of water.

Add 5 sunchokes whole along with half an eggplant* (chopped in 4 or 5 pieces) and boil until sunchokes are tender. Add 4-5 nasty cloves of garlic for last 8 minutes. (If you aren't clever enough to figure out exactly 8 minutes before cooked, you may substitute chopped ginger, cumin & coriander instead).

Then blend the sunchoke/eggplant mixture with the juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt pepper, and oregano to taste. Also blend in green chillies, anywhere between 1 and 2 kilos, depending on who is coming to visit!

Chill for 10-20 minutes in freezer, or for a couple of hours in fridge or garage (Canada only). 

Eat with tortilla chips, crackers or idlies.

(inspired by Belinda Hassell)

Since we always want to send cool thoughts your way, here are pan-Canada family greetings. We wanted to get snowy pictures of all of us but couldn't find one of Cato so we substituted a climbing picture  and since we thought it might be hard to recognise Victor & Anne-Marie in the snowy pictures, we added one additional one of each ...

Lots of love,

Doug & Anne-Marie

*Anne-Marie originally thought the recipe asked for half an elephant but even if an elephant collapsed from overpinching we don't think chopping it into a dip is appropriate...

Mark Donohue

"Mmm. I've never seen me snoring", says Mohanan. And very few of us have, while there are problems to ponder, people to persuade, and puzzles to permute.

Despite having the finest Keralan coaches in dosa and idli, I find myself favouring the Sri Lankan versions. And their sambar with pumpkin really is very good...but their anaphora can never beat the Malayalam palindromic style that you've introduced to all of us.

Best wishes.

-Mark [click to see video]

David Nash

Very best wishes Mohanan. You have spiced up so much -- including, I recall fondly, our annual ALS conference in 1984 in Alice Springs -- and keep keeping at it. Good on you.

Samuel Jay Keyser

Dear Mohanan,
If I had to pick the most cheerful colleague I know, it would certainly be you. You have the knack of seeing the world now the way I remember seeing it when I was a kid, an amusement park where the rides were great and the tickets free. Your 60th birthday won't put an end to that. For you it will be time for another ride. I wish I were with you on your birthday so that we could ride together.
Jay

Peter Cole and Gabriella Hermon

Best wishes on your birthday, Mohanan.  It appears that you have finally reached maturity...and wisdom?  It was due to your efforts that we spent 1992-1993 in Singapore.  When we arrived in Singapore as visiting professors, we discovered, to our surprise, a rich community of linguists, with interests in all the local languages and in every imaginable linguistic (and non-linguistic) issue.  The Mohanan's were very much at the center of this vibrant community.  What made life in Singapore especially exciting was the fact that the Singapore linguistic community was not a regimented group engaged in decorous discussion; rather, each of us had a very different ideas, and there was vigorous argument about nearly every issue.  Mohanan took obvious pleasure in the diversity of views and the spirited disagreements.  In fact, if there was too much agreement, Mohanan was known to switch positions and argue for the opposite view.  What was essential was that intellectual life should be passionate--and and every idea should be well defended.    Regardless of his personal beliefs, Mohanan would spend hours in discussion, patiently following each idea to its logical conclusion, expected or not (usually not).

Dear Mohanan and also Tara, our very best and fondest wishes for the future.  We hope that your intellectual life will continue to be exciting and that we will continue to enjoy both our agreements and our disagreements.

Gaby and Peter

Joan Bresnan

Dear Mohanan,
I have always appreciated your straight-from-the-shoulder truth-telling and your amazing insights into language and how to think about language.  But just at the moment, among many other recollections, I'm remembering our 5:30a.m. jogging in the park in central Singapore and your introducing me to beer with lime.
Happiest birthday to you!
Joan
 

Wee

Lian Hee

Thank you for teaching me how to think rigorously and independently, and for opening not only my mind, but also my heart to different ideas. That helped me see solutions and opportunities in difficult situations. Thanks Mo. Happy Birthday!

Here's some cake!

Belated wishes

Sim Weishun

Happy belated birthday Mo! (14 March 2007)