Desi tadka to English

Desi tadka to English

  

The British were in India for nearly 200 years. That is time enough to leave a mark, and a very dark one at that, on our manners and mannerisms, way of dressing, food and language etc. Only about 10% of Indians speak reasonable English. If, however, you listen carefully, almost everybody in our country speaks some words of English without realising it.

With the help, a lot of it in fact, of prime English dictionaries I have tried to list out some words transliterated from regional languages, which are a part of our everyday language and do not seem out of place or incorrect but of course they are not correct.  https://youtu.be/nz60FAJXO_A

God Promise: This applies to ‘mother promise’ too. Like me haven’t you too seen somebody pinch the skin on his/her throat and in all seriousness utter God promise or mother promise to swear on either, to stress that whatever he/she is saying is true. All my time searching the dictionaries did not help find this word. Promise, yes, but why God or mother, is the question. Perhaps it is the exact translation of 'Ma kasam' or ‘Bhagwan kasam’ in English. In Bollywood movies shot mostly in Mumbai haven’t all of us heard 'aai shapath'?

Chuddy buddies: Or langotiya yaar- friends since they were in their langot (diapers) or friends who can even exchange langots (Yuk! But maybe). That means really long time close friends. It may be the Indian variation of British slang bum chum and like bum chum does not have any connotation of homosexuality.

Good name: Shubh naam literally translates to good name. What is your name, sounds too abrupt to us. Aapka shubh naam kya hai, softens it a little. ‘Shubh’ means auspicious or good, and it is basically used as a courteous/formal way of asking for someone's full name.

Do one thing: Ek kaam karo/karna is the instruction when one is trying to dish somebody advice in our country. The gravy is salty- Do one thing, add a little kneaded flour to it. (Ek kaam karo, is mein thoda gundha atta daal do.) It is redundant because the instruction is going to be given anyway.

He/ She is eating my brains: Woh mera dimaag kha raha hai. In Hindi it sounds perfectly normal because we have been saying this if somebody is irritating us with his persistence for some reason.

Similarly he is sitting on my head. Nobody literally sits on our head but the expression is used if somebody is sitting near you and observing you which is disturbing and causes distraction.   

Give exam:  Why do we say he is going to give an exam while the correct usage in English language is you take/write or sit for an exam? This means you are the examinee while if you give an exam, you are the examiner. Not so in Hindi/Punjabi: dena is to give and lena is to take so in these languages taking an exam would mean that you are the examiner. Rarely, however, would you hear exam mein baithne ja rahe hain (going to sit in the exam)

Take tension: Mark this, nobody gets tense on his own in our country. We blame it on the other person who gives or takes tension, an expression in several regional Indian languages. Boss, tension nahin lene ka main sab sambhal loonga, (Boss, do not be tense, I shall take care of everything.) is the favourite sentence of all the cronies of hero/villain in the films.  

Tight slap: Now that is an easy one. A slap is a slap. But to add power and force to how the slap was, kas ke or tight is added, thus the tight slap. In fact, nowadays even vegetable vendors coolly add ‘tight’ to say firm, e.g. tight tomatoes, tight mangoes as against soft, pulpy old ones.

Today morning: We do not say this morning or in the morning e.g. in I went for a walk in the park in the morning. We make it more specific with today morning (aaj subaah). Similarly, last night is spoken as yesterday night (kal raat). We also say kal, parson, narson, chauth  (yesterday/tomorrow, day after tomorrow/day before yesterday, the day before/after that and even the day before/after that).

You people: Do not be surprised to hear you/we people (tum/hum log) for the plural of you/I. Similarly use of those people instead of they is very common.

Little little: This is merely to stress the first word and is prevalent in many Indian languages e.g. chhota chhota, chinna china. It is not limited to little. People get irritated over small small things. In fact it can be black black spots, slow slow progress, very, very tasty.  The best seems to be who who (kaun kaun) attended the party?

Real brother/sister: We do not merely say brother/sister. In Indian languages each relation whether from the mother’s/bride’s or father’s/groom’s side, has a name. In such a situation if we want to mention that one is born of the same set of parents, and is not a step-sibling or cousin and the word saga (real) is used to clarify that. Naturally, it extends to the English we speak.

Parcel food: That should be easy. Before the multinational junk food chains came in, we did not have the word ‘take away’. The food was packed into a parcel to be taken home or eaten at some other place. Most of the times, before you can nod an avanu or haidu in Telugu or Kannada to his quizzical parrsall, the tiffin centre guy has already slapped the coconut chutney on the square piece of polythene and kept the steaming soft idlis on it and is all set to wrap it further in a newspaper and tie it with a cotton thread.

Ate tiffin/ lunch/dinner? - A very Indian way of asking - Have you had your snack/lunch/dinner? Grammatically incorrect but short. Indian languages allow us to shorten words.

Backside - This one can surely be comic. In Indian languages back means back but then there is a peechhe ki taraf- oddly translated to backside. An Indian saying, “I have a beautiful garden in my backside,” should not make you envision a carefully designed patch of flowers and foliage sprouting from his rear end. He simply wants to tell you about the garden at the back of his house.  

Father’s/Grandfather’s property- You trespassed on someone else’s property or used his/her belongings without his/her permission and he wants to ask you, in all probability with rage if you thought it was your parental property. Kya tumhare baap-dada ki jaidaad hai? And if he/she is saying it in English, well, he/she translates it thus.  

Give incision: People in different professions have their own lingo and also the right to Indianise it as they please. Dr Sunayana pointed out that the correct expression is to ‘make’ an incision and not ‘give’. But because we say cheera dena in Hindi, everyone keeps relies on the wrong usage in English too.

These are the words that have come to my mind so far. There must be scores of other such words in use and hundreds more must be in the process of transliteration - incorrect but so much in use, I would not be surprised if you say, “Can’t be wrong, I use it all the time.”

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