What is the meaning and origin of “Catch 22”?
(N. Viswanathan, Chennai) Sometimes it so happens that the two candidates contesting for the same parliamentary seat are both crooks. No matter whom you vote for, it isn’t going to matter; either way, you are going to elect an individual of questionable integrity. Though it seems that you have a choice, you really don’t have one. A Catch 22 situation is a no win situation. No matter what you do, you end up on the losing side. *The companies didn’t want to hire Velu because he didn’t have any experience. But he wasn’t going to get any experience unless someone hired him. It was a real Catch 22 situation. The expression comes from the title of a novel written by Joseph Heller in 1961. Many people consider this work of fiction set during the Second World War a classic. In the story, the only way that air force pilots could get out of doing combat duty was by pleading insanity. In order to be discharged these individuals had to claim that they were insane. But the catch was that only a san
