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December 14, 2005
Mind your language, at least in India – Part 2!
When my brother in law (BIL) (now in Belgium), started his career in the IT field, he had to move to Mumbai. The only languages he knew were Tamizh and English and he was completely unaware about Hindi and Marathi – the two basic languages spoken in Mumbai. He had made a compartment friend - Mohan, who thankfully was a Tamilian born and brought up in Mumbai. They would speak in English and Tamil, and Mohan would teach him a bit of Hindi once in a while.
On a holiday they decided to have lunch together in some restuarant, and my BIL handed over the menu to Mohan, so that he could decide whatever they could eat. Mohan looked into the menu for a while, and suddenly pointed to my BIL, asking “kulcha?” And my BIL immediately replied, “haan kulichiten”! Mohan, in fact was asking whether he will have Kulcha, a North Indian food, and my BIL thought he was asking him whether he took a bath today in Tamil!
Working late nights are part and parcel of any Corporate culture. After a day long work, my BIL caught the last train to home situated in Dombivli, a suburb some 54 kms from Mumbai. It was too late for the restaurants to remain open. Hence he had to buy some bananas for dinner. Bananas are sold by Marathi women, and they sell it at very cheap price. You can get 12 bananas for Rs 10. And they sell it saying the price, “dahala baaraa, dahala baaraa, dahala baaraa”, which means take 12 for Rs 10 in Marathi.
The next day, my BIL reached office a bit late. And all knew he was staying alone and that too very far from office. All were worried about what would have he had in the night for dinner. A Marathi associate approached him and asked, “so what did he you have for dinner?” And my BIL said, “I had few dahala baaras”! His friend dropped his cigarette. My BIL thought bananas are called dahala baaraa in Marathi.
At Mumbai, we were blessed with a Tamil family as our neighbours. The neighbourhood lady had a special passion for gardening. She would get many kinds of plants from all over places, and would spend a lot of time arranging them in her small garden she had in her balcony. Once when she was coming home from work, and she spotted a Tulsi plant (an Indian herbal plant), which had really grown well in one of the Maharashtrian’s homes. She could not stop herself. She knocked the doors, and asked if she can get a stem of the same so that she can have it in her house too. The Marathi lady was really kind and helpful. She immediately broke a stem of the plant and said in Marathi, “ghari jaaun tumchi kundith theva, changle yenaar” (go home and keep the same in your ‘kundi’ and it will grow well). My neighbour, thanked the lady, came home, and burst into laughter. Kundi in Marathi means flower pot and in Tamil means butt!!!
Posted by Kenni at December 14, 2005 11:29 AM