"Ek Dham"

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).