Grasping at the straws

At 17 for 5, India was grasping at the straws when Kapil Dev saved the day with 175 not out.

He wasted the entire year and did nothing to improve his spoken English. Now, he has bought a spoken English book and an English conversation CD and hopes that he will become a good communicator in 2 weeks. I told him, all this grasping at the straws will not help him.

The airline is running in loss. The MD is grasping at the straws by asking the banks again and again for loans and also writing to the pilots that their salary would be released within 2 weeks.

The corruption by the minister is completely exposed but he is grasping at the straws by blaming it on opposition conspiracy.

Now, a straw is a twig or a piece of dry grass, a तिनका. Grasping at straws means trying to get support from twigs. Now, twigs are too weak to support themselves so what to talk of them giving support to others. What’s the catch?

The catch is that someone who is grasping at straws is in such a hopeless situation that he is seeking support from things which cannot really give him any support. Very similar to the डूबते को तिनके का सहारा phrase in Hinid, though there is a subtle difference. The Hindi phrase is optimistic, it indicates that there is a possibility that the sinking man can actually be saved. However, the English phrase is fundamentally pessimistic. It means trying to salvage a sinking situation through support of things which are unlinkely to provide any real help. The situation is doomed to eventual failure.

Use grasping at straws or clutching at straws when some in a doomed situation is trying in vain to get support of useless things.

Let’s take some examples:

1. He didn’t attend most of the classes. He even skipped some of the house tests. Now he is grasping at the straws trying to impress his professors.
2. The company splurged a lot of money on executive meetings in swanky five star hotels. Now, they are clutching at straws to protect themselves from bankruptcy.