The British Raj left many marks upon India and Indians. One of which is the English language, which has become one of the countries official languages. The language has so become intertwined with the daily language --that you can't tell what are Indian words and what are British words.
My study of the Influence in our language started when I was reading the book, A Passage to India, in high school. I learnt of words that could possibly be of British origin that I thought were Indian. Like the word, tiffin -- who knew that the container we refer to as a tiffin, originated from the Brits.
Lets take the food item, "Ragda Petis" or "Ragda Patties" as I have recently realized it could possibly be hinting to. I am simply amazed that the thing I call Petis, could be referring to a Patties.
Like the word "jungle" which originate from the Hindi word, 'jangal', which means a rough, waterless place. I recently heard the word jungle being used in a bhajan and thought that they started to use English words, when I checked dictionary.com and realized that the word I thought was English was actually of Indian origin.
Another word/phrase I theorized about recently was "phoot", which is slang in Gujarati and it means "to get out of here". When I said phoot, I thought of my foot and how the British were probably telling the Indians "phoot", meaning to get out. Possibly starting a slang term, that is still being used by me. Amazing. Or I just have a lot of time on my hands to wonder.
Update (12/31): The word "punch" orignates from "paanch" meaning five, the number of ingredients in the drink, punch.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
New Song of the Moment
The song from Life in a..Metro, 'In Dino, Dil Mera' (Singer: Soham) has just become the new song of the moment. This is going to be the next film with Shilpa Shetty post Big Brother that I am really looking forward to. The movie looks slick, with a bunch of storylines (as I always like) and is produced by UTV Motion Pictures (I really like them).
Here are the lyrics...
(In dino, dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha
tu khaab saja, tu ji le jara
hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi mohabbat - 2) - 2
(berang si hai badi zindagi kuchh rang to bharoon
main apani tanahaayi ke vaaste ab kuchh toh karoon) - 2
jab mile thodi fursat - 2, mujhse karle mohabbat
hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi mohabbat
(usako chhupaakar main sabse kabhi le chaloon kahin door...
aankhon ke pyaalon kse pita rahoon usake chehre ka noor) - 2
iss zamaane se chhupakar - 2, puri karloon main hasrat
hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi mohabbat - 2
in dino, dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha
tu khaab saja, tu ji le jara
hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi mohabbat - 2
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