what is common in Ares-Pujuju, Shib-sekki, Mother- fucker, madar-chod ...
yes, they all mean someone who has sex with his own mother in different languages. As is my inquisitive self, I have always wondered about different swear words from different cultures. Other guys are also always interested in such topics. Everytime I have had exchange of such knowledge one thing has surprised all of them - "Behen-chod". Apparently this swear word exists only in our sub-continent.
Now After many such discussions obviously I began to think of reasons. One reason that actually sounds logical to me is that maybe they do not consider it as an insult. Isn't it quite reasonable that people would use as swear words, only things that actually are insulting and hurt the other person. Nobody gets insulted if you tell them -"wife-fucker". So, maybe Incest is not quite frowned upon in these cultures hence sister-fucker is not insulting and hence no swear word as such.
After Golu's comment I can think of a more logical reason. As he says that there is higher probability of insulting someone by saying "mother-fucker" as everyne has moms but few people do not have sisters. Now in India the probability of a guy having a sister is also very high. (rakhi fundaes) Hence the probability of you insulting someone with "sister-fucker" is also very high which leads to its more common usage.
Now all this was just a preview to what I actually wanted to jot down. It was another debate with the same labmate with whome I had a debate over accents.
LM: hey, you guys are pretty creative with your swear words.
Me: Now I still do not understand why sister-fucker is creative.
LM: Man!! it is not english.
Me: What?
LM: Yes, sister-fucker is just combination of two english words. But it means nothing.
Me: And mother-fucker!! what about that?
LM: That is an accepted english vocabulary. It is a slang and everybody understands it.
Me: You mean if I go around in US saying sister-fucker to people, they will not react!!!!
LM: Yes, they will look at you funny coz this word means nothing.
Me: Balls to you man..I am sure the word is pretty self explanatory.
LM: It is like say...ummm..ball-kicker. It is two english words and means someone who kicks balls. But it is not english as it is ambigous.
Me: I can bet with you that if I go asking on this road to all persons if they understand sister-fucker, allmost all will exactly know what I am speaking off. There will be no ambiguity that you are speaking off..
LM: I just know it is not english. It means nothing!!
Me: Okay, Indian subcontinent takes pride in giving english a new word - "Sister-fucker". If anybody does not understand what it means you can ask any Indian around you.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
travelogue
BWI - Neewark
The only thing I can say is do not fly US airways unless you realy like joy rides. I had resorted to ramramramram...maramaramaramara in between. The most jerky flight experience for me in those small aircrafts.
Neewark-Mumbai
Everytime I travel, I hope that this time my fate will be like SRK or Aamir or goddamn any hero and there will be a nice, beautiful, cute or MSR (golu's favorite type) next to me and my flight will be over in no time...I will spend the entire time talking to her...she will turn out to be a Oriya (I know it's far fetched, but if I were to dream why not dream for the most ideal situation!!)..We will exchange phone nubmers..baat aage badhegi and blah blah blah..
The important thing is this never happens and I end up cursing all the movie makers of the world..I enter the waiting area for my flight and in the entire space there was just one good looking girl (GLG)..now the probability of her sitting next to me is very acute (for your info Boeing 747 has 385 EC, 24 BC, and 12 first class seats...you can do the calculations...if not then you are intellectually not developed enough to be reading my blog!!)..Thats why I did not feel very bad when next to me, sat a fat dark gulti girl...I took out "A heart-breaking work of staggering genious" and started reading it..
The next few lines will describe situation in a Air India flight..
Guy 1: I can already see it is going to be a bad flight..I can not stand this smell..Air India sucks..
(The bathroom stinks..it did not help that I was on the row just next to bathroom)
Air plane announcement: Please remain seated, pull your chair to upright position, we are about to take off.
Many people still continue to open the over head luggage compartment, some are walking I do not know why?? May be they wanted to get out..the crew should have simply thrown them out but instead they went to each one of them and politely explained them the situation..after two three iterations everybody was seated and then the plane took off..
Air plane announcement: We are arriving at Paris. We have a 1.5 hours stopover here. The passengers who are with us till bombay are kindly asked to remain seated. Please do not use the toilet during this time as crew is coming up to clean it and the water pressure will be not there for some time for flushing.
As soon as the plane lands, people queue outside the toilets. As I was next to the toilet I was very scared. If flushing does not work I will have to deal with the smell. Any ways people use it..flush does not work. They have to call up people to fix it. The take off is delayed.
The guy next to me aptly put the whole situation in words.."If you ask an Indian not to think of Pink elephant, he will think of a nice pink elephant"..I dont know why he chose pink elephant but I agreed wit him.
The clean-up team which had come up to clean the plane was also pretty mad because people kept roaming around affecting their efficiency..It did not help that they did not know english..
After a long time (at least it seemed like a very very long time) the plane landed in Mumbai..Again everybody started taking off their stuff from the over head cabin before the plane had come to a halt...people were trying to get out as quickly as possible..In between there was this female cursing Indian mentality saying she should be allowed to leave first as she is with an infant..started praising How other air-lines take care of it..middle age whinning females are very irritating..
Any ways I get out and, whoa!! the GLG is standing right next to me..But from close up I saw that she is not that maal..I was happy that I actually did not go through the pain of calculating the probability of sitting next to me and it would have been worthless..
Bombay-Hyderabad
Very short flight..though it was delayed bt 50 minutes..But the most painful part of flight to India is the baggage claim..This was the third time and never has it taken less than an hour..there was a guy from Suadi Arabia, who was very frustated and kept saying in saudi arabia it takes only 5 mins..I want to be proud of India and being Indian but these things are kind of reality check..
The only satisfaying thing after all this is that I get home and have a nice cup of tea with my dad and we talk about my new born nephew who I am going to see this weekend or early next week..
The only thing I can say is do not fly US airways unless you realy like joy rides. I had resorted to ramramramram...maramaramaramara in between. The most jerky flight experience for me in those small aircrafts.
Neewark-Mumbai
Everytime I travel, I hope that this time my fate will be like SRK or Aamir or goddamn any hero and there will be a nice, beautiful, cute or MSR (golu's favorite type) next to me and my flight will be over in no time...I will spend the entire time talking to her...she will turn out to be a Oriya (I know it's far fetched, but if I were to dream why not dream for the most ideal situation!!)..We will exchange phone nubmers..baat aage badhegi and blah blah blah..
The important thing is this never happens and I end up cursing all the movie makers of the world..I enter the waiting area for my flight and in the entire space there was just one good looking girl (GLG)..now the probability of her sitting next to me is very acute (for your info Boeing 747 has 385 EC, 24 BC, and 12 first class seats...you can do the calculations...if not then you are intellectually not developed enough to be reading my blog!!)..Thats why I did not feel very bad when next to me, sat a fat dark gulti girl...I took out "A heart-breaking work of staggering genious" and started reading it..
The next few lines will describe situation in a Air India flight..
Guy 1: I can already see it is going to be a bad flight..I can not stand this smell..Air India sucks..
(The bathroom stinks..it did not help that I was on the row just next to bathroom)
Air plane announcement: Please remain seated, pull your chair to upright position, we are about to take off.
Many people still continue to open the over head luggage compartment, some are walking I do not know why?? May be they wanted to get out..the crew should have simply thrown them out but instead they went to each one of them and politely explained them the situation..after two three iterations everybody was seated and then the plane took off..
Air plane announcement: We are arriving at Paris. We have a 1.5 hours stopover here. The passengers who are with us till bombay are kindly asked to remain seated. Please do not use the toilet during this time as crew is coming up to clean it and the water pressure will be not there for some time for flushing.
As soon as the plane lands, people queue outside the toilets. As I was next to the toilet I was very scared. If flushing does not work I will have to deal with the smell. Any ways people use it..flush does not work. They have to call up people to fix it. The take off is delayed.
The guy next to me aptly put the whole situation in words.."If you ask an Indian not to think of Pink elephant, he will think of a nice pink elephant"..I dont know why he chose pink elephant but I agreed wit him.
The clean-up team which had come up to clean the plane was also pretty mad because people kept roaming around affecting their efficiency..It did not help that they did not know english..
After a long time (at least it seemed like a very very long time) the plane landed in Mumbai..Again everybody started taking off their stuff from the over head cabin before the plane had come to a halt...people were trying to get out as quickly as possible..In between there was this female cursing Indian mentality saying she should be allowed to leave first as she is with an infant..started praising How other air-lines take care of it..middle age whinning females are very irritating..
Any ways I get out and, whoa!! the GLG is standing right next to me..But from close up I saw that she is not that maal..I was happy that I actually did not go through the pain of calculating the probability of sitting next to me and it would have been worthless..
Bombay-Hyderabad
Very short flight..though it was delayed bt 50 minutes..But the most painful part of flight to India is the baggage claim..This was the third time and never has it taken less than an hour..there was a guy from Suadi Arabia, who was very frustated and kept saying in saudi arabia it takes only 5 mins..I want to be proud of India and being Indian but these things are kind of reality check..
The only satisfaying thing after all this is that I get home and have a nice cup of tea with my dad and we talk about my new born nephew who I am going to see this weekend or early next week..
Monday, July 17, 2006
Accent
I was having lunch with my labmate. We were having random converstaions with topics ranging from Iran's president, MRI, zidane head butting materazzi......asihwarya rai..It was then I mentioned to him how she had a strong american accent during the CBS interview and also added she has that while talking to indian reporters too and that pisses me off..
Suddenly my labmate's facial expression changed to the one that Joey has when he tries to multiply 13 with 11 or some numbers like that, basically you guys get me right..
LabMate: hang on..hang on..what did you say -- american accent!!
Me: Yes, the accent with which americans in general and you in particular speak.
LM: No man, I do not have an accent.
Me: Dude any creature who speaks has a language and an accent.
LM: No man..This is the reference accent. You can say some people have northen accent, some have southern but I have no accent.
Me: yes, exactly you have a general american accent.
LM(Now visibly irritated): No man, this is the way english is supposed to be spoken. You have an accent. An Indian accent.
Me: Yes, I have an accent and I do not see the need to change my accent according to some american's needs unless I am doing buissness with him/her and my interaction is necessary. Since I am in america, I put in extra effort to understand you and try to speak in a way that you guys can understand. If you were to be in India it will be otherway around.
LM: No man. This is the correct way of talking in english and you guys should try to speak like this instead of critisizing the lady who is trying her best to do the correct thing.
Me(Must have an utterly amazed and angry look): Shut up man. There is nothing called correct accent. Language consists of grammar and pronounication but not accent. Go and ask any linguist.
LM: Man!! you are getting too technical
Me: !@##$$%%%^^^
LM: Lets ask people around. I am sure everybody wants to speak english the way I speak. (cleverly not using the word accent!!) In Korea I am sure people will pay me to learn to speak english this way.
Me: Is english a main language in Korea.
LM: No.
Me: Now it makes sense. There is no english hence when they try to learn obviously they try to go for the most global accent(hats off to spectacular hollywood movies.).
LM: No man. I am sure Indians will also try to speak like this. If not they should start doing it. Americans define english.
Me(I must be shouting by now): Bullshit!! In that case only english people can say that they have the right accent and even they talk to each other saying you have yorkshire accent and stuff...never say you guys invented english. English was introduced to Indians before it existed here. And Indians learn to speak english from their childhood.
LM(Now completely at loss of words): You mean people talk english in daily lives in India.
Me(By now exhausted with excitment): Yes man. And thats why we have our own accent cause we speak like that from our childhood. We do not have to learn "how to speak english" from americans.
LM: man, whatever I do not have an accent. I define the reference accent as the most prevelant accent in the world. Something has to be the basis.
Me: You might be shooting yourself in your own foot. I am not sure but there might be more Indians speaking english than the population of americans who speak with your accent.
LM: fuck off man..you understand what I mean. Let me change the definition as the basis is the accent which is prevelant in highest percentage population of any country.
Me: First of all you just can not define things as you like. Second, again maybe australia or england beats you in that coz they have less immigrants.
LM: Thats it man. Our definitions are different. Both of us are correct in our own ways. We spend so much time debating such random topics.
Me: Yeah, We could not convince each other over such a trivial matter. Think about when countries have differences in opinions!!! Anyways man you should know that anybody who speaks any thing has to have a language and and accent. Go and ask any linguist.
LM:@@##$#$%$
I really get entertained debating with this labmate of mine. Do not make any conclusions regarding him just on the basis of this blog. He is a very nice guy at heart. The guilt conscience in me makes me write this as he has been very helpful to me in lab and here I am making fun of him.
Suddenly my labmate's facial expression changed to the one that Joey has when he tries to multiply 13 with 11 or some numbers like that, basically you guys get me right..
LabMate: hang on..hang on..what did you say -- american accent!!
Me: Yes, the accent with which americans in general and you in particular speak.
LM: No man, I do not have an accent.
Me: Dude any creature who speaks has a language and an accent.
LM: No man..This is the reference accent. You can say some people have northen accent, some have southern but I have no accent.
Me: yes, exactly you have a general american accent.
LM(Now visibly irritated): No man, this is the way english is supposed to be spoken. You have an accent. An Indian accent.
Me: Yes, I have an accent and I do not see the need to change my accent according to some american's needs unless I am doing buissness with him/her and my interaction is necessary. Since I am in america, I put in extra effort to understand you and try to speak in a way that you guys can understand. If you were to be in India it will be otherway around.
LM: No man. This is the correct way of talking in english and you guys should try to speak like this instead of critisizing the lady who is trying her best to do the correct thing.
Me(Must have an utterly amazed and angry look): Shut up man. There is nothing called correct accent. Language consists of grammar and pronounication but not accent. Go and ask any linguist.
LM: Man!! you are getting too technical
Me: !@##$$%%%^^^
LM: Lets ask people around. I am sure everybody wants to speak english the way I speak. (cleverly not using the word accent!!) In Korea I am sure people will pay me to learn to speak english this way.
Me: Is english a main language in Korea.
LM: No.
Me: Now it makes sense. There is no english hence when they try to learn obviously they try to go for the most global accent(hats off to spectacular hollywood movies.).
LM: No man. I am sure Indians will also try to speak like this. If not they should start doing it. Americans define english.
Me(I must be shouting by now): Bullshit!! In that case only english people can say that they have the right accent and even they talk to each other saying you have yorkshire accent and stuff...never say you guys invented english. English was introduced to Indians before it existed here. And Indians learn to speak english from their childhood.
LM(Now completely at loss of words): You mean people talk english in daily lives in India.
Me(By now exhausted with excitment): Yes man. And thats why we have our own accent cause we speak like that from our childhood. We do not have to learn "how to speak english" from americans.
LM: man, whatever I do not have an accent. I define the reference accent as the most prevelant accent in the world. Something has to be the basis.
Me: You might be shooting yourself in your own foot. I am not sure but there might be more Indians speaking english than the population of americans who speak with your accent.
LM: fuck off man..you understand what I mean. Let me change the definition as the basis is the accent which is prevelant in highest percentage population of any country.
Me: First of all you just can not define things as you like. Second, again maybe australia or england beats you in that coz they have less immigrants.
LM: Thats it man. Our definitions are different. Both of us are correct in our own ways. We spend so much time debating such random topics.
Me: Yeah, We could not convince each other over such a trivial matter. Think about when countries have differences in opinions!!! Anyways man you should know that anybody who speaks any thing has to have a language and and accent. Go and ask any linguist.
LM:@@##$#$%$
I really get entertained debating with this labmate of mine. Do not make any conclusions regarding him just on the basis of this blog. He is a very nice guy at heart. The guilt conscience in me makes me write this as he has been very helpful to me in lab and here I am making fun of him.
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