Sunday, June 14, 2009

To chutiya or not to chutiya?

On a blog I read today there was a reference to a word that starts with a C and has a H and some dashes for missing letters. It is obviously a word of abuse and I sat for a little bit wondering what it was.

While I drank my morning chai and contemplated how to decorate cupcakes for the birthday barbeque today, I had an epiphany and I realised what the word was. Now ofcourse I had to say it or write it. I simply had to. I had to say the word, and roll it around my tongue and maybe even use it in a sentence or two. Have you ever felt the urge? And how satisfying is that!

HAHAHAHAHAHA... my inner writers tourettes syndrome is forcing me to write the word!!!!
CHUTIYA! CHUTIYAS! MANY CHUTIYAS!
There I typed it. Relief!

I find desi verbal abuse so much more colorful and descriptive than the same words in English. Very satisfying to use them in a desi language. In fact when they are in a regional language they are even more satisfying and sound more... you know... naughty and bad boy/bad girl!

A few years ago on the way to work, the Husband and I were getting onto a very crowded subway car on a hot summer day. We were being pushed and shoved by a group of robust sardars probably newly arrived from India. Not wanting to exit/enter in a orderly fashion was a clue as to how newly arrived they were.

I am not sure who threw out a Chutiya first but the Husband matched them word for word with desi abuse words. There was several minutes of stunned silence. I had to laugh. This very proper and waspy looking bespectacled gora dressed in a suit, matching them... desi gaali for desi gaali. The dichotomy was wonderfully delicious!

As we were leaving the subway car, one of the men leaned forward and said to me in a thick punjabi accent... "Behenji app ne unko gaali sikhaya? Bahot accha laga is desh mein gaali sunke" (Sister, did you teach him these words? It felt good to hear these words, so far from home). I was laughing the rest of the day.

Actually I have never taught him anything like that. I guess his trips to India had stood him in good stead. He just absorbed!

20 comments:

memsaab said...

AWESOME. And most certainly you may apply it to all the characters in Dil Ki Rani :-D

Ava said...

hehe absolutely hilarious. Mere des ki ladki sona ugle ugle desi gaali, mere des ki ladki.

Solilo said...

Ha..ha..ha.. Kiran, you gunny gal!

Apne des ki gaali ki baat hi kuch aur hai.

The Panorama said...

This was really funny and well written too!I really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good work:)

Anonymous said...

rofl.

I learnt Hindi gaalis from my dh. And taught him Mandarin/Hokkien ones in return. When he curses in Hokkien, I cringe and he does the same when I swear in Hindi.

I found out that what my dada used to say was a long winded gaali..Sasur ka naati.. I seriously didnt understand it till NK explained it. And now its fav. :)

Sharell said...

Too funny!!!! That made my day. I had so much fun letting my imagination run wild picturing the situation. Hilarious in all regards. I must admit I do have quite a repertoire myself.

Some of the insults are just laughable though, I don't know how they can be taken seriously with all those references to animals, mothers, and body parts! ;-)

bollyviewer said...

What?!! Your hubby absorbed gaalis in a few visits to India! I clearly wasted my time there (basically all my life) since all I know is kameene, kutte (thanks to Dharmendra!) and a couple of other gaalis. I am making up for lost time by picking up Tamil/Telugu/Marathi gaalis (they have such a ring to them!) from desi friends here.

Indyeah said...

ROFL!!
that was hilarious!!
:D

ek-ladki-anjaani-si said...

LMAO... now all "HE" and yes I can call him by his first name, but won't... needs is some parachute coconut oil in his hair and an awesome mundu that gets folded upto his knees! I can so see that :-D

Preeti said...

ehehe ....loved the post ..i have heard first thing u learn about a language is abuses ..

i always tell frends ..abhi chup karega ki punjabi main galiyan sunne ke baad ...but thats just plain dhamki ...all i can say is ullu , ghada and my fav kameena :-)

but i do know lot of stuff ...punjabi;s cant complete thier sentences without mc /pc ..its like a prefix /suffix to sentence ...

imagine this

that mc telephone connect hi nhn ho raha ...ab telphone ki mommy ji ka kya kasoor ...

i so much miss that in b'lore ...do i really ??

and I heard this Ch***** word in ofc first ...

Another Kiran In NYC said...

Memsaab:
I did. I spelled the word out in cheerios while I read your review. The breakfast tasted good!

Avdi:
Loved the lyrics. Manoj Kumar is probably getting heartburn :)

Solilo:
Totally alag baat is right!

Panorama:
Welcome and I like your blog a whole lot!

Asaan:
We have to get together for you to teach me gaalis in Mandarin... the more exotic the more fun they are. BTW i am trying to research what your dada's gaali meant... sasur ki etc.

Sharell:
Body parts and animals is when they get reallllllly fun! Hehehe

Bollyviewer:
You certainly have wasted your time. A life without the profane is no life at all :)

Indyeah:
Glad I tickled your funny bone :)

Ladki:
I wish he would. I always liked a mundu wearing, dosa slinging, mustachioed hero type :) Now if he would learn to dance around a tree wearing white pointy shoes and singing in a nasal voice... my bliss would be complete.

Preeti:
I think I need to teach you a course in cursing. Ullu and kameena are for babies :)

AnjuGandhi said...

sometimes even i get the urge to give hindi gaalis but then khabhi di nahi so cant bring them on my lips

A.prem said...

people give away crooked stares when they hear girls abusing!.. but the expressions are worth a million bucks!

nicely written :)
cheers!

Another Kiran In NYC said...

Anju:
Give in to your gaali urge. Very freeing :)

Miss Cynical:
Thanks for stopping by!

P said...

Ha Ha Ha Ha!

That was one funny read!

:)

Mama - Mia said...

hehehe!

i use it every now and then and the guys usually go into stunned silence and then get used to it!! :p

cheers!

abha

Narendra shenoy said...

Hahaha! Enjoyed that! And Chutiya is such a multi-dimensional word!. Heres my fvorite usage illustration:

This guy is staying over at a relative's house. Auntyji asks him if he would like to share a room with Guddu or sleep on the roof. Guy thinks fast and decides that the chat will be better than some smelly farty 'Guddu'.

WHen he comes down int the morning, a buxom young thing greets him with a cup of chai.

Guy asks her 'Tumhara naam kya ha'?

She replies 'Guddu. Aur tumhara?'

'Chutiya'

Another Kiran In NYC said...

Priyanka:
Welcome to my blog. I will be stopping by yours to read every post!

Mama-Mia:
I am sure you say the word with proper inflection :)

Narendra:
Loved your illustration. Hehehehe.
Ah, the linguistic nuances of the word!

Anonymous said...

The first time I heard the word Ch..... was when I was watching a Sunjay Dutt interview.......he told a Chu.... joke.......so I had to google the word coz the joke was very funny once i understood the meaning of the word....lol
btw it is impressive that hubby knows the desi swear word...these are the first words that non desi's ever learn

x said...

strangely it works, you are right about the google noodle. reminds me of a friend in India calling his brother in Australia. the Aussie on the phone who answers shouts out, 'oi bhenchod, its for you.'

When the Indian brother comes on the line, he is asked how the gora knew such a gaali. The reply was, 'Kuch nahi yaar, I was missing home so I taught a few of them certain words so I wouldn't feel so lonesome.