Life has been unfair.Especially when you’r forefathers and you’r fellow community members have set up such supreme criterion.Benchmark that you are expected to live upto.You think of a south indian and the collection of words that rush through you’r brain would be Madrasi,Dark,Intelligent,Hilarious,Rajnikanth,Funny names,Idli-Sambhar-Dosa.The icing:A certain Ms.Faza Chugtai thought Anna[Read:Big Brother] meant A coconut!
I explain:
Madrasi:Not all South Indians are Madrasis.Such display of ignorance may really irritate a non-madrasis.I fortunately happen to be a South Indian who also happens to be a Madrasi.Not all South Indians walk,Talk and Dress like me(I have sacrifised my much talked about fluoroscent green T-shirt).It is as good as sayin all Asians are Chinese or Pakistanis.God Bless.:-p
Dark:Okay,you racist Bastards!I definitely have paid the prize for that extra supply of melanin.
Intelligent:I hope i’ve broken the myth.
Hilarious:What you see on TV is not what we are.Trust me.We are more ludicrous than you can ever imagine!I can write a Best-Seller on my folks someday!
Superstar Rajnikanth:This phenomenon not only happens to be the highest paid actor in the whole of Asia but also one of the most respected individuals in the country.Imagine a Human of his stature wearing a lungi for an attire and an ambassador car for transport!
Long names:I take this opportunity and use this public forum to announce that my ‘second name’ happens to be Subramaniam.We Madrasis traditionally inherit out Grand-Fathers name which in my case happened to be Subramaniam.However,sanity prevailed and my parents decided on a much presentable name -Adhitya(Only if i were to be called by that.Sigh).
Idli-Sambhar-Dosa:Ok,I agree we might have it a bit more often than you would, but Hello!It’s not that we have this wardrobe stuffed with loads of idlis and dosas and we pick one every now and then as we pass by.I am well acquainted with the chapatis,the bhajis,the parathas et all…
Having spent 2 years in Mithibai amongst our fellow G.u.j.j.u brothers and sisters,I always craved for someone who spoke anything that din’t sound even remotely like Gujrati.I have real respect for that community.Not even once,i mean not even once in their conversation did they utter any word that could be deciphered by an ‘outsider’.That was the time i regretted having studied in an English medium.
A fitting reply came in.A year later though in the form of S.P.I.T..We have this huge Madrasi gang in college now.A lot of them.It’s fun.We make sure our presence is felt.We believe we can be as ‘cool’. As ‘happening’.Very recent during this quiz session that was going on in college, a fellow classmate happened to say something very Madrasi.I wondered.If ‘Wassup man?’ ‘Hey deeeewwwde’ and ‘Big shit!’ form such an integral part of our general vocab then why not give our very own Tamil vocab a try?!Here is listing a few ‘Go-Try-These-Tamil-Words/Phrases’:
1-Pirya Kakoos [pirya-Big,Kakoos-Shit]
This one dosen’t exist in Tamil Dictionary.A Self-creation.By far the worst translation of any English phrase.Imagine if ‘Big Shit’ was to be literally translated in Hindi.Ewwww…Try this one at you’r own risk!
eg:Tamil Girl:I am Pregnant!
Chilled out Tamil Boy:Pirya Kakoos!
PS:There is no such thing called as a Chilled out Tamil boy!
2-Da[Tamil substitute for the Hindi word ‘Re’]
The most commonly used word in Tamil vocab.Di is used in reference to a girl.
Eg:Q:Have you read Ram’s blog?
A:No da…now what’s that?
Ps:This comes from a personal experience.One of my North-Indian friends din’t know what a blog was..!
3-Poda[Buzz off]
Again Podi used in reference to a girl.
eg:Slumdog won 8 oscars!
Poda!you kidding me or what?!
4-Vaay Mood[Shut up,Vaay-Mouth,mooda-Shut]
5-Epidi irakai?[How you doing?]
6-Yenna Panrai?[Ssup?]
My dad is good with English,Arabic,Malyalam,Marathi,Hindi and Tamil.My mom knows basic German and French too.I have inherited their love for languages.I personally love Arabic and Urdu.Have made no attempts to learn them though.Nevertheless,I still make it a point to read a few paragraphs of Hindi every now and then[The one’s that come behind the Navneeet notebook!].
I remember this North-Indian professor at Mahesh Tutorial who would speak fluent Tamil.I suddenly developed this respect for him.Similarly i remember one of my friend’s mother really intriguied by my marathi-speaking skills.She thought Tamilians spoke nothing else!
As Indians it dosen’t take much to know about our fellowmen.Look around you.Talk to you’r friend and get rid of you’r ignorance.:)Would love if you sent in quotes,words and phrases that you love.Language no bar!More South-Indian queries welcome too.
My ‘Must-try-Tamil-Words/Phrases’ isn’t complete without Superstar Rajnikanth’s Dialouge:
Naan oru derava sonna,Noor derava sonna madri!
Me sayin once is equivalent to sayin it a 100 times!
Annanymous 