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Hunky dory

Sounds like a cheesy Hindi Movie Title.  Something to signify a strong rope.  Or a dude with a pet name like Hunky with a BFF called Dori.  But it is one of many curious and select words of a lexicon spoken only in SE Asia specifically India.

'Pet name' is another such set of words found only in India.  It is not literally meant to be the name of your pet which state side is construed largely in the category of four legged mammals with a tail.  Rather in India it is a name that members of your household will use to refer to you.

A 'household' is also a strangely Indian phrase wherein the size of it can vary depending on the geographic location of it.  In rural India a household could literally mean a village full of relatives that may appear at a moment's notice (or without one) and gab all day long since there is nothing better to do.

It is odd given there are (or I should say were) not many things to do that there can be things to talk about.  Most tend to be on the 'family front'.  These days with Facebook and many other electronic channels available to the sundry there is perhaps a lot of gab worthy content floating around.

'Family fronts' are also not to be heard of in the US.  This is also a peculiar Indian phenomenon - sometimes heard of in the Indian diaspora floating in the US.  What is the association of a family with a front (short for frontier) is not clear to me.

Most families were sedentary so their frontier has never shifted from the town they were born in much like families in Akron, Ohio or Vance, Alabama.  But I do not hear of frontiersmen other than those that actually went to war with the neighborhood hillbillies.

Or in another frame of reference if a family front had something to be discussed why was there no mention of the family rear?  What was going on there?  Everything hunky dory?



Comments

  1. from time to time it rears its ugly head..back to the front?

    ReplyDelete

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