When somebody asks about the status of some action or work assigned, I reply "oru vidham aai" in Malayalam colloquially,if I have completed most of the work and only a small percentage is left. Somehow the phrase "ek dham" in Hindi got in my mind as the equivalent for "oru vidham aai". A couple of days back,my colleague ( hes also a Malayali) pointed out that I was using the word inappropriately. Usually the usage in Hindi is "ek dham bekar"(damn bad), "ek dham achcha" (damn good) and so on.It means the speaker is pretty sure . I used the word lavishly without knowing its meaning. Now I understood the reasons why some people looked at me with confused faces hearing the phrase in my speech.
So what might have made me think "ek dham" = "oru vidham aai" ? I did some analysis and my discovery was "ek" in Hindi and "oru" in Malayalam means 'one'. "dham" and "vidham" sounds similiar. Thats it. :-D
Some time back , one of my senior colleague asked me to make a report. A couple of days later,the guy came and asked me about the status . By the time I had almost finished it. He asked "Alen, woh report ban gaya kya ?" (Is that report ready), I replied " woh, ek dham bangaya hai, lekin thoda aur bacha hai" (Its perfectly complete, but some more is left)..ha ha isn't it too confusing??? From his facial expression, I understood that he got confused, but I hardly knew the reason. He replied "ok".
But the greatest victim of "ek dham" was my guitar teacher. After each lesson he used to ask me, "Aap ka ho raha hai??" (Isn't it going well??).. Though my intent was to say that its goin on, I say "ek dham ho raha hai"(going perfectly).. then the guy tells "teek hai, aap baja ke dikhaawonaa" (ok you just demonstrate) expecting that I ve completely mastered the lesson)... and I start chang cha chang cha chang.. off rhythm.. and the guy looks me with a 'lost' expression and asks to continue my practise.
My endless honeymoon with Hindi started with the first Hindi word I learnt which was "paranthu" ( meaning but) from B.R Chopra's 'Mahabharat' in the late eighties, when I was in K.G.The character 'Shakuni' used the word so frequently that I asked my grandfather why shakuni was talking about kites( parunthu in Malayalam means Kites :-P)The second word I learnt was "seedha" ( meaning straight). That time I was in senior K.G and heard my dad instructing a taxidriver at Dubai "seedha javo" (go straight). I wondered why he told a lady's name "Sita".I thought for a few seconds, then asked my dad "who is Sita?" , he replied " Sita?, Who is Sita?". My mom was looking at him ,eyebrows raised. I told "just heard you telling the driver about Sita". Dad and mom burst into laughter.
Yeah I will master Hindi b4 i leave this 'Mahanagar'. That too ek dham achcha Hindi.
PS:I ve studied Hindi at school in 6th, 7th and 8th standards as 3rd Language (the syllabus was of 1st,2nd and 3rd std).
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Three questions !!!
What all things come to our mind when we hear the name of a place/country? The geography,people, famous personalities, monuments,food,culture,climate etc. Take the case of Australia, the moment we hear it, a virtual slide show happen in our minds comprising Kangaroos, Sydney opera house, the great barrier reef,the cricket team etc. If its India, it will be Mahatma Gandhi, Taj Mahal,curry etc. Definitely the picture will be different for people who had been to a place and who had not been.
Whenever I get opportunity to interact with people of other nationalities, I share thoughts about culture,history, lifestyle etc. During such a conversation,I got a few questions from an English guy which really 'shook' me. He was a friendly guy with a good sense of humour.He worked in almost all deepwater oil hubs (Gulf of mexico,North sea, West africa, middle east,SE Asia ,NW Australia etc) and had a fair amount of knowledge about history and culture across the globe.It was his first assignment in India and was working for a project management consultant to my company.
For ease, let me call him Mr.H.. here goes his first question.....
Mr.H: Why do Indians shit publicly on road and all?
Me : Who told that?
Mr.H: I ve seen people doing that.
Me : Ok , I guess you might have seen this at Kakinada, right? If you go to rural areas like that, It ll be a common sight. The people over there are very poor and mostly are peasants and are illiterate. They don't have enough money to built a toilet.
Mr.H:To your surprise ,I ve seen that in a city, Vizag. If the people are too poor, then why dont the government do it?
Me : If you take the case of my state Kerala, you can hardly find a house without toilet. You know why? The people are educated and through local self govts,poor people got aid .I think the governments should educate people on this regard and aid them.
Shame on the govt!! Can you imagine even in your weirdest thoughts ,people shitting publicly in Singapore or Paris?
Lets move on to his next question.He thought that I was a christian and asked me whether I was one.Hearing that I am a Hindu he went on like this.
Mr.H: I ve heard that the Hindu society is divided into 4 classes. Whats the need to divide your society?
Me : You re talking about the caste system. To be frank I don't really know why it still exist.
Mr.H: So which class do you belong to among the four?
Me : I don't belong to any of those.
Mr.H: Why?
Me : My forefathers were said to be Buddhists. Somewhere in the history, they converted to Hinduism. It wasn't a sudden conversion, but a gradual one and they weren't allowed into the mainstream Hinduism. Historians have got different versions of this story.
Mr.H: Ok,I guess the classes are based on profession.
Me : Yeah, it was based on profession, but don't know really why people carry caste and subcastes even in this age. Let me tell my family history, from maternal side, my grandfather was a businessman, he was into textile business in my hometown. His dad was the manager of a transport company in erstwhile Travancore. From my paternal side, My grandfather was a farmer.My dad was a coating/painting inspector in the Middle east, now he is into books/stationery business.
Mr.H: Dividing the society on such basis doesn't do any good.
Me : People should realise that. Nobody is superior or inferior to others.And funniest thing is that nobody can convert to another caste like religious conversion. ha ha.
Mr.H: thats effing funny.
As an Indian,I really felt ashamed . I read in Abhilash Sir's Blog about a Korean Buddhist whom he met commenting about casteism in India. For me casteism is no different from apartheid.
And his third question was about arranged marriages.
Mr.H: I am unable to digest the concept of arranged marriages.How could you do that.It seems like a business.
Me : Its simple as well as complicated.ha ha. The life partner is being foundout with the help of parents. A few decades back, the age at which people used to marry was well below 18. They weren't mature enough to find their partners their own.That may be one of the reasons .Apart from that, people never allowed intercaste marriages to happen. But I too really don't know why people still hold these concepts.
I am quite confused.
:-)
Whenever I get opportunity to interact with people of other nationalities, I share thoughts about culture,history, lifestyle etc. During such a conversation,I got a few questions from an English guy which really 'shook' me. He was a friendly guy with a good sense of humour.He worked in almost all deepwater oil hubs (Gulf of mexico,North sea, West africa, middle east,SE Asia ,NW Australia etc) and had a fair amount of knowledge about history and culture across the globe.It was his first assignment in India and was working for a project management consultant to my company.
For ease, let me call him Mr.H.. here goes his first question.....
Mr.H: Why do Indians shit publicly on road and all?
Me : Who told that?
Mr.H: I ve seen people doing that.
Me : Ok , I guess you might have seen this at Kakinada, right? If you go to rural areas like that, It ll be a common sight. The people over there are very poor and mostly are peasants and are illiterate. They don't have enough money to built a toilet.
Mr.H:To your surprise ,I ve seen that in a city, Vizag. If the people are too poor, then why dont the government do it?
Me : If you take the case of my state Kerala, you can hardly find a house without toilet. You know why? The people are educated and through local self govts,poor people got aid .I think the governments should educate people on this regard and aid them.
Shame on the govt!! Can you imagine even in your weirdest thoughts ,people shitting publicly in Singapore or Paris?
Lets move on to his next question.He thought that I was a christian and asked me whether I was one.Hearing that I am a Hindu he went on like this.
Mr.H: I ve heard that the Hindu society is divided into 4 classes. Whats the need to divide your society?
Me : You re talking about the caste system. To be frank I don't really know why it still exist.
Mr.H: So which class do you belong to among the four?
Me : I don't belong to any of those.
Mr.H: Why?
Me : My forefathers were said to be Buddhists. Somewhere in the history, they converted to Hinduism. It wasn't a sudden conversion, but a gradual one and they weren't allowed into the mainstream Hinduism. Historians have got different versions of this story.
Mr.H: Ok,I guess the classes are based on profession.
Me : Yeah, it was based on profession, but don't know really why people carry caste and subcastes even in this age. Let me tell my family history, from maternal side, my grandfather was a businessman, he was into textile business in my hometown. His dad was the manager of a transport company in erstwhile Travancore. From my paternal side, My grandfather was a farmer.My dad was a coating/painting inspector in the Middle east, now he is into books/stationery business.
Mr.H: Dividing the society on such basis doesn't do any good.
Me : People should realise that. Nobody is superior or inferior to others.And funniest thing is that nobody can convert to another caste like religious conversion. ha ha.
Mr.H: thats effing funny.
As an Indian,I really felt ashamed . I read in Abhilash Sir's Blog about a Korean Buddhist whom he met commenting about casteism in India. For me casteism is no different from apartheid.
And his third question was about arranged marriages.
Mr.H: I am unable to digest the concept of arranged marriages.How could you do that.It seems like a business.
Me : Its simple as well as complicated.ha ha. The life partner is being foundout with the help of parents. A few decades back, the age at which people used to marry was well below 18. They weren't mature enough to find their partners their own.That may be one of the reasons .Apart from that, people never allowed intercaste marriages to happen. But I too really don't know why people still hold these concepts.
I am quite confused.
:-)
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