Comments on: Day 5/6 Stuff I never knew

By: M

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:25:59 +0000

Heh – yes I speak Hindi – did ICSE in school, and my maternal grandparents lived in Delhi, so spent most vacations there.
M

By: AverageJane

AverageJane — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:39:17 +0000

- When referring to our homes in Bangalore, it is always ‘their house’ and ‘our house’ where ‘their house’ is his parents’ house and ‘our house’ is my parents’ house.
- I hate the panipuri in the bay area as well.
- His relatives are always his but I do call his parents ‘amma’ and ‘appa’ which is what he calls them.
- I hate dramatic dialogues as well, only next to family gossip may be although I don’t mind gossiping about random friends and acquaintances with friends. Weird huh?

Me: Gossiping is the best thing ever. I love a good bitching session with a close friend or my sister.

By: CA

CA — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:54:30 +0000

Glad your FIL is doing good.
Its always spouses’ mama, mami … for cousins, we stick to names …

By: Yo

Yo — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:11:18 +0000

LMAO
1. Baapka would be the right term, I think..though Mai-ka and Baap-ka followed by some dots, could make for excellent gaalis!!

Me: I love using those gaalis and it doesnt affect me because I didnt grow up speaking Hindi. So I use the horrible gaalis in Hindi when I am pissed and NK uses the Mandarin ones.

2. Dude, hate gol gappas because they are from delhi! .. try calling them pani puri and I bet you’ll love them.
3. O forget about mama, chacha.. ask me where I am from in India and i’ll give you my Mom and Dad’s home address…that’s where my heart is and that’s home.

Me: rofl

4. Asli bhai, nakli bhai-LOL… now you have me humming ” yeh sach hai koi kahani nahi, khoon khoon hota hai pani nahi” from amar, akbar anthony.. where the 3 brothers give blood to their mother at the same time..3 bottles flowing into mother’s body kinda CRAP!

Me: We watched it with my older girls a while back and the questions they asked were hilarious.

By: Passionate Goof

Passionate Goof — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:48:59 +0000

Well about that… the ‘leave’ waala chhodo, is actually written as ‘chhodo’, when you remove one ‘h’, it does indeed mean what has you cracking up. There are some basic rules of converting Hindi to English, which most people don’t follow, like aakaash, is spelled with double ‘A’s, a single ‘A’ is suitable for the sound of ‘a’ in garam. But you will read both with single ‘A’s. God! You have me fuelled up now, maybe I will do a post on this.

Me: Abha just informed me about the double H thing as well. Go on, do a post on it.

By: M

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:47:08 +0000

heh – your Hindi-isms crack me up….but yeah, why not a maika for men – go for it!

As for filmi dialogues – I don’t know, that particular one doesn’t sound very filmi to me…and I am as S.Indian as they come
Probably a function of age though – we’ve had several family members go through serious illnesses/accidents etc. in the last couple of years and heard the same sentiment expressed several times by relatives and friends. I think the psychological advantages of knowing your children care enough for you to come when you are sick is huge…

Me: I am just a cynical bitch. Everything sounds filmy to me. So do you speak good hindi?

Relatives – depends on how well I know them – some of them are “our relatives” some are individual.

By: Abha

Abha — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:18:29 +0000

haha! your hindi is cute!!

even i am not a big fan of gol gappas! if i given a choice i prefer other chat! but me dont hate paani puri!

and yes, saccha bhia… oh well cousin is indeed saccha but not sagaa!! :p

and ROFL at chodo! leave waala is spelt as chhodo the double H gives the right sound for words like Chhat, Chhaata and CHhaya!

with a single H the sound is more like chamacch! or chor! cool?! :p

Me: PG wrote the same thing about the double H. Good to know that as well and I should stop being so juvenile. Another word which had me cracking up was Chinar Park in NK’s hometown.

and M never says Abha’s cousin or something like that. he always says “our” cousin! But i say M’s sister or whatever! i try but dont succeed often!

and i LOVED this post!!

glad to know FiL is doing good!

cheers!

Me: Cheers back Abha…

By: Perakath

Perakath — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:37:50 +0000

I don’t like golgappas… and I’m not too hot on chhaat, either! Or any ethnic sweets except gulab jamun, for that matter. But then I’m essentially a fraud Indian

Me: I only like ras malai. Hate jalebis and burfis and everything in between. It shocks people when you turn down home made laddus or when someone says this is the best jalebi and you say Hmm no thanks. My kids otoh, love kaju katli–Ashwina, Neil loves gulab jamuns and sooji halwa. Avasha loves most of them as well. Interesting,hai na?

By: Violet

Violet — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:31:50 +0000

I use a simple convention to mark my parents from his.. His parents/relatives are all ‘our relatives’ — ‘humari mummy’ while mine remain mine.. like ‘meri mummy’.. It came rather instinctively to me after we got married, more so because my bro-in-law was also staying with us. And my mom cannot be his mom. Our mom meant mom to all of us

Me: Hmmm… thats a nice way of doing. I still tumari and meri Bad bad me.

By: Suki

Suki — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:24:45 +0000

1. I think it’s funny, but totally logical. “Baapka” just sounds soo weird. Don’t men have “mai”s as well as “baap”s?

2. Oooh, if you don’t like the minty water try the Bengali style tamarind thing. As a true-blue Bong foodie, I think no one makes golgappa – aka “phuchka” – as well as we do! Warning – ask the phuchkawalla to limit the chillies according to your tolerance.

Me: Next trip to India will have to try that.

3. Glad he’s doing better. And not related to your FIL, but to your ILs’ remarks – sometimes I think people fall ill just to demand attention.
Oh, I’d never ever say “hamaare” while talking about relatives. Everyone here is called “mama”, “mami” regardless of whether they’re related or not so I can happily call them that to their faces. But while referring, it’ll probably be “Indira-maasi” and so forth.

4. Bah. In India, every relationship is perforce incestuous. Sab ke sab toh bhai behen hain!

5. Wow, you can still successfully hide things from them? Much much respect!

Me: Its in a really secret place so I am hoping it will be hidden for a bit.

6. Haven’t read the book, but one of my friends uses “D” in capital to designate that letter halfway between “d” and “r”. I think that works

Me: Ohhh interesting. I should start using that as well, not that I wite that much in hindi but good to know