No! No! I don’t mean those unutterable, unprintable obscenities and profanities people use in a state of extreme disgust, disdain, agony and exasperation. I mean those colloquial expressions whose etymological roots are ambiguous and socio cultural usages very diverse.
Once a driver was reversing his car talking on mobile. He stopped inches from the rickshaw I was in. Dhakkan, meaning a lid, befittingly describes the man exhibiting total lack of grey cells, common or civic sense. More intensely, it simply alludes to someone with an empty top storey or non functional cerebral receptors.
My younger nephew, during his college days, was quite taken up with the word chamanjhinga – not locatable in any Hindi dictionary. At first I thought it was his personal coinage but subsequently I have found that it actually refers to one of the iconic characters from the Hindi cult comedy movie Herapheri. How appositely the word describes people with the knack of repetitively committing enormous blunders – an almost pathological gravitation towards unparalleled idiocy.
An adjective which was frequently used amongst my office colleagues was chepu which must have been culled out of the verb chipakna meaning getting glued or pasted. A chepu is that incorrigible leech who latches on to you invariably in spite of your every attempt to get rid of him/her.
Saala is the word for wife’s brother – a very delicate relation – in whose good books the groom has to be for unabated marital bliss. Similarly, Saali is the sister of the wife – a frolicsome relationship – a perennial tease who has to be often pampered as a proven crucial medium for all kinds of communication engineering to ensure conjugal harmony. Regrettably both the words are also used derogatorily to demean or contempt someone. However, the word saala is also frequently used in friendly banters amongst boys.
Gadhera with a forceful stress on the ‘r’ is actually used to imply someone with asenine qualities. Personally, I feel those dumb (no pun intended) creatures are very humble and hard working who labour without any expectations. Gadha is the Hindi word for ass or donkey. It also means an utterly foolish person. Gadhera refers to the owner who is presumed to be as nincompoop as the beast of burden is. Incidentally, Gadhera is also a local term for a small natural water channel , stream or rivulet in Uttarakhand, one of the Northern States of India.
A very common slang is ullu ka pattha which literally means son of an owl – a subject of eternal mockery and scorn. It is commonly believed in this part that the owlish trait to keep awake at night and sleep during daytime is reflective of cognitive deficiency. Its exact corresponding slang in English will be sonofabitch. But the context and connotation of the former differs hugely from the latter. Ullu ka pattha refers to one given to unmitigated buffoonery, epitome of inexcusable incompetence, perpetuation of imbecility of the highest order beyond the point of redemption. It is again contrarily an address of affection too amongst male buddies.
I have heard elders say that to learn a language or to understand the ethos of a milieu, it is very important to know not only the history and heritage but also the colloquialism. Since, I am in the northern part of the subcontinent which is primarily a Hindi (speaking) belt, I have considered only those words and phrases which are commonly heard and used.
Yup, I know most of these words too. My grandfather use to say owl son instead of the urdu/ Hindi version.
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Haa ! Haa! Owl son is so sophisticated. Older generation did use this phrase quite often.
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Yes, another one he coined was – sons of bachelors 😅😂
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Hee Hee 😀😅
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😅😅😅
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We need a lot to get over it!
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Aparna, these words by their diverse usage have assumed integral space into conversational vocab. I believe every language must be having such words as it’s intrinsic part of human expressions and directly reflective of strong emotions 🙏
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I agree…. Every culture finds its own uniqueness..
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Thank you 🙏🙏
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Obliged to the core ❤️
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I am more interested in how these words have travelled from one region to the other and gathered and/or got distorted meaning
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That’s quite an interesting post whose research work is based upon your own experiences in the Hindi belt. You got the idea of penning such a post itself is an interesting thing.
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I was in two minds how the subject would be taken. Thanks for the surprise visit and comment Mathur Sahab.
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My visit is based upon the notification of your post coming to me through email. Whenever such a notification comes, I do visit the concerned post of yours. I am strictly against the use of (main obscene) expletives in literature / movies / serials. That’s why I have completely stopped watching Indian web series’ being telecast on various OTT platforms.
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You are right. The harsh language has become quite a staple in serial, movies and even books written of late. I couldn’t read Amish’s Meluha series because of the coarse language.
You can consider downloading the WP App. It’s quite convenient. Jetpack it’s called.
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Dhakkan and chamanjhinga are new to me
Chepu is chipku here
Rest are the same
But bechara gadda-so hardworking phir bee badnam
Aur ullu-a group of ullus is called parliament.
An interesting post,may be someday you write about their origins.
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Hee…Hee… I like the definition of parliament. Feel sorry for gadha too. I am still looking for the origins of these words. Thanks for the encouragement 🙏
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My pleasure,Geeta Ji
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Such a delightful and insightful read, Geetaji! 😊 You’ve beautifully captured how these quirky colloquial words carry so much cultural depth, humor, and emotion beyond their literal meanings. Truly, language becomes alive through such expressions! ✨
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Absolutely, Maha. These slangs, though underrated, are part and parcel of our culture palette and a strong indicator of emotions and feelings.
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A fascinating set of examples. I am in agreement with what your elders have said
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Thank you so much Derrick 🙂
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A fun read.
Every region has their favourite pack of words. During my childhood days use of such funny slang words were common and no one took them so seriously but these days rudness and swearing has increased beyond limit.
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Yes, absolutely true and the F word has become universal.
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We have words such as these, Geeta, in English. Often, they become so commonly used that they are officially added to the dictionary.
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Yes. That is how I guess vocab expands. But it’s interesting to note the divergent usages. Thank you Mary for adding an insight to this post.
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Fascinating and insightful post, Ma’am! This will be a great topic of study for the field of socio-linguistics.
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Interesting hearing some hindi expletives! I liked hearing and reading these hindu words!
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These words are so much part of the colloquial conversation though slang. Thanks for reading the post and commenting.
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