Indlish

Some 60 years ago, when the British left India, they did not realise the blunder they had made during that time. They taught us English. I now wonder why Mr. Blair gets so upset about getting a sales call from Mr. Kumar in Bangalore. After all, Kumar spent a good part of his childhood education learning English so as to make a living by calling Mr. Blair. The British had created an elite class of English speakers during their rule in India to administer the empire. Even today in India, if you are good at making English jokes, you are a dude, otherwise a yarr (pal). However, over the last decade or two, there is another language that is flourishing, though out of frustration, among not-so-dude Indians. These youngsters, who have tried their best in life, but failed, to learn the nitty-gritties of English grammar, have created an indigenous English called Indlish.

Indlish varies across different regions in India based on the local language. In the north, it is Hinglish, a hybrid of Hindi (the local language) and English; in my home state, it is Punglish from Punjabi. The way ‘Indlish’ works is that when an Indian struggles to find the appropriate noun/verb/adjective to complete an English sentence, they finish it with an Indianized word. Sometimes, they use English words to complete sentences in their local language. However, it is now a common trend on college campuses to use such words.

Some words are quite common like ‘timepass’ (Kill time)or ‘timewaste’ (to not utilize time appropriately). I believe ‘tension’ is one of the most commonly used words by non-English speakers in India, like my grandmother who speaks Punglish, ‘Put tension hee te bimari di jaad hai’(tension is the root of diseases). However, there are some English words which she has had difficulty in pronouncing like inverter, a power backup system in India. She settled with an alternative in Punglish, hor-power (more-power). In India, you never address someone older than you by his/her first or last name or you could be badly scolded by somebody. It is considered very disrespectful. Every person who looks significantly older than you is called AuntyJi or UncleJi, where Ji is the most widely used suffix in North India. The Ji at the end signifies respect. If you are being extremely respectful to someone, you may call him/her SirJi/MadamJi.

In one of my courses during my first semester at Tech, a professor spoke, very fluently in a language similar to English; later on, a friend of mine told me that I was listening to the American English. I liked his style of teaching, cracking jokes in between the lecture to make it interactive. Because of his accent, I often missed the transition from his lecture to his joke, so lagged in laughing. Watching American movies (not porn) helps a lot in getting the hang of the American accent, but to my surprise, I found that even they have Americanized the Queen. There were many words, which I heard in movies and during my interaction with fellow Americans, I didn’t find in my Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. I believe it doesn’t matter if the Queen is in jeans or a sari (Indian woman’s dress). English is now the world’s local language. According to Stefan Bergman- it is the bestest.

Source:http://www.mtulode.com/feature/2010/10/21/culture-shock/

Gay Sardar

"That's so gay,"I have heard this sentence many times before, but quite a lot in the last week which has been extremely good. The interesting thing is the way it is being used in conversational English.
Many youngsters in the US use one of the most controversial words, Gay, as noun or an adjective but in different way. I noticed some of these guys using it as frequently as the other two most spoken words in US-Thank you and Fuck you. I think, as gays get more rights, probably, the use of the word gay would rank higher.
The very sights of two guys, who may be brothers, sleeping together activate the gay area of this young guy's brain. I am sure he would barely skip the chance to make some comment using the word 'gay.' As far as I know, the word gay as noun also means happiness. I came across an interesting use of it as an adjective. For example, one of my friends (whom I know from the last 7 days) was taking to his friend on phone. He was quite upset with him over some matter and said him that he (his friend) was having 'gay attitude.' It seems anything which sounds weird is characterized as gay.

Similarly, the word 'Sardar' is used in Indian community to describe a particular behavior. Actually, sardar is the noun used for Sikh males, who are considered as brave persons. However, our GenNext has gone a little far and with time the word sardar now has different meanings in conversational language. It has been dragged outside the boundaries of oxford and Cambridge. Nowadays, it is used to describe any silly act or stupid person. It is said that the highest population of sardars is found in jokes rather than their home land Punjab. Being a sardar I have learnt how to laugh at myself. For non-Punjabis the very introduction of any joke with sardar in it makes them laugh out loud. Any failed act may prove you to be a sardar. Any fickle joke means you are sardar. Making tea in pressure cooker means sardaron wale kaam. Always singing Punjabi songs in antakshri means hardcore sardar. In nutshell, any weird act can prove you to be a sardar or a relative of sardar.
So, what is common between a sardar in India and a gay? Well, sardar's fought against oppression, for freedom of religion and some other kinds of freedoms too. They came into existence from within the society and they created their own space by struggle and sacrifice. Similarly, in the 21 century, gays are also trying to create their space in the society. They are also fighting for their gay genes to be acceptable in the world. Now the point is that even if they get their constitutional rights in next 10-15 years, the word gay won't be used in its actual meaning. Like sardar, it will be used to describe any weird act in the world which has not been done before. Few more years then the dumbest thing would be described by the word 'Gay Sardar' which will not one bring a smile on others face but remind us that they have always contributed to the society.