Local lingo

For many it is style, for a few it is something which makes them stand out from the crowd and show that they are playing it cool.

The verb `to chill’ isn’t about feeling cold, it’s the way to relax. If you’re popular and in demand, you’re `hot’, if you’ve found a way to be stylishly distinct, you are cool and if you’re cool you’re hot. `JAM’ is not only elocutioning, but it’s also asking someone to wait, topi dena is not giving a cap but deserting someone.

Each college campus has its own jargon which may sound like French or Greek to an outsider. `JFKs’ means `just for kicks’ and `CTs’ means `cheap thrills’. Amazed aren’t you?

If the conversation is to be noted, then it begins with, “Oh shit! I’ve forgotten to get my gogs man,” says Siddharth Pandey, a college student. Not that he is trying to impress his neighbour with these words but it comes to him very naturally.

One word frequently used is `Bond’. Well, this in no way refers to James Bond for sure. The term is used for someone who is an introvert and does something enthusiastically or makes an effort to improve himself/herself, you say, “Ye to Bond ban raha hai.” Scene ho gaya is gadbad ho jana.

Batti lag gai has got nothing to do with an electrician or fixing a bulb somewhere – it means any kind of situation which is messy, like for example after a terrible exam, you say batti lag gai. Kangan, another college student, feels one should not really use language, as it’s like cutting a language into pieces. Words like pappu or chomu, which simply means a lallu, good for nothing sort are often used. Lag gai or fatti is used when you are in a tight situation. Vela is someone who is doing just passing time or velagiri as they say. Dhinchak is something ekdum mast, extraordinary. Anything could be dhinchak.

`Concrete Mix’ which is a technical architectural term meaning a mixture of bricks, cement, stone is used when after lunch / dinner the leftover sabzi and everything else is mixed with rice and that is known as `concrete mix.’ Khada is someone’s flaw or weak point, and is normally used in games. Fatta is gappa when somebody utters something very `fundu’ (fundamental). Then they have `those ones’, which are dirty looks, tough questions especially given by their profs, and they say, “He gave me those ones.” These students have their juries in which they have their presentations and viva and when the profs keep giving them those ones, they say Jack laga di or jack lag gai.

Devyani Chopra, second year student, does not think that “What the hell?” is slang. It is just a way of expressing her frustration. Her conversation with her friends generally begin with these so called normal words and none of the gang see it as abnormal. Rinta Anthony and Mangla Kamath, however, are not impressed by this language and avoid using it. The common ones are `tutes’ for tutorials, `pracs’ for practicals, `kini’ for Kinetic, `enthu’ for enthusiasm, `despo’ for desperate, `sec’ for second, `probs’ for problem and `senti’ for sentimental. Students also come to know their professors by their initials like RMP, KBS, TPS. `Chaos’ describes the state of a student two hours prior to any submission or presentation, `arbit’ is a short for arbitrary, meaning nothing in particular and everything in general.

According to Nipun Trivedi, this language has now become acceptable and nobody minds it. “It is easier to converse in this language where one does not have to bother about manners,” he maintains. As Mini Mathur says, “I never get J if I see my guy moving out with other gals in the campus.” Now Mini actually intends to say that she does not feel jealous if she sees her boyfriend moving around with other girls in the campus.

Mini says has been using this language since she was in school. She says that she is not adopting anybody’s ways but was just being her normal self.

Says Aditya Singh, “Just as by wearing a Levis jeans you feel a part of the group.Similarly by using these words like `shit’, `damn’ and `what the heck’ you feel you are part of the generation.” Singh asks if we are adopting our ways of living from the west why not our lingos too. “I am not ashamed of using these words and it does not mean that I do not respect our modest ways.”

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