Skip to main content

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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...