Half of India Commonwealth Games volunteers disappear with kit

NEW DELHI: The spirit of the Games doesn't seem to be prevailing. Seen to be an essential ingredient of the Games, volunteers have gone missing. An estimated 10,000 volunteers have dropped out after enrolling for the mega sports show.

A part of the problem also seems to have been the terms offered to volunteers. Instead of payments, the experience of participating in the Games with a certificate at the end of the event are the main rewards. However, there is also a smart set of clothes - the kit costs Rs 12,000 - besides meals while at work.

Sources said the missing volunteers have gone away with their uniforms that might have been what they found to be of interest. Perhaps, they should have been paid a daily allowance at least. Some of the work is quite tough and requires good communication skills, said an official who confirmed mass desertions.

The volunteers were part of the effort to make the Games a participatory event and with nearly half of the total 22,000 going AWOL, it is quite a hole to fill. Complaints of missing volunteers have been pouring in at the airport and important centres, even though an official associated with the volunteer programme claimed that all of them turned up at the Village.

Volunteers have been given two pairs of vibrant uniforms, free Metro passes from home to venues and packaged food. These volunteers have been trained by Amity University. It is also being wondered how the catering contracts will be honoured as the caterers would be making a certain number of food packets every day.

Since you brought up the word “kaboodle”, the words “kit and kaboodle” interested me. I thought you would be interested in this as I was so I wanted to share:

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http://askville.amazon.com/origin-phrase-kit-kaboodle/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1967653

Seems to date back to mid-18th Century, probably British, and connected to a kitbag

Hmm, pretty cool to read up on this one. I knew the meaning, but not the origin, gotta admit. You’ve got to know that a kitbag, or kit bag, is what soldiers called their bags that held, well, everything they needed to carry around with them. Kit may have come from “kith,” which mean one’s estate, one’s belongings, hence the connection. Thus, the “Whole kit” refers to everything you’d normally carry, I guess best compared to a suitcase today? Heck, maybe a woman’s purse, tho’ it was originally meant more in what you’d need to travel from one place to another, so I’m thinking an overnight bag at the very least would come closest to representing the idea.

What I really found interesting is that Caboodle or Kaboodle didn’t start out as caboodle. The “k” sound was added for the sheer pleasure of sound. It was originally “boodle,” which was the word used to describe a collection of things, even a collection of people. Thus, “kit and kaboodle” may have originated with the idea of bring along your bag and friends, or your bag and anything else you can think to bring.

According to http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/2/messages/329.html , Caboodle once was even something of a legal term, meaning “estate” and was used in legal documents.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who2.htm notes that the full phrase was listed in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785 and can be found in US dictionaries as “the whole boodle” as early as the 1830s. It goes on to connect the phrase to “bootie.”

“Boodle is familiar as the relatively modern US word for money illegally obtained, particularly linked to bribery and corruption. This is usually suggested as coming from the Dutch boedel, “inheritance, household effects; possessions”. But it’s uncertain whether it’s the same word as the one in the whole kit and boodle. Some writers suggest the latter comes from the English buddle, meaning a bundle or bunch (closely connected with bindle, as in the North American bindlestiff for a tramp).”

Cool question, fun to research. Thanks for asking!
Sources: http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/MurrayWaldrenscolumnThats.html

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