Disclaimer: if any word in the below mentioned blog seems
incomprehensible, kindly replace a few letters with letters that make sense in
an expletive way. Considering the sanctity of public forums, I am bound to not
use such words explicitly. For starters, try decoding the Title. If you are
unable to do so now, you are probably incompetent to read the content below and
hence are urged not to waste any further time reading it.
The inspiration for this blog came from a colleague who,
very comfortably and casually, uses the word “Duck”. The word flows in her
language as naturally as she breathes air. During general chit-chat with her
one fine day, I happened to use the word “Khufiya”. She was utterly disgusted
with the use of such an “obscene and gross and vulgar” term. I initially
apologized for my crime, but she went on profusely about the usage of the word
and its inappropriateness. This got me heated up and we ended up with a lengthy
argument; that and an inspiration for a new blog.
The above mentioned incident is not the first one I have
had. Over the past few years, I have observed tremendous amount of
discrimination against our national language, within our generation, with
respect to the use of profanities. It makes me wonder why there is such a
tremendous bias towards the duck. Mother duck and Sister duck in all senses,
tenses and usages have the same meaning as Macho and Pancho. When a guy uses a
Duck, he’s considered to be cool, but if the same guy uses a Pancho, he’s
considered ugly. Why the difference? Are we so gung-ho about the English
language?
Personally, I am a staunch supporter of Hindi (even though I
am not very good at it J)
especially when it comes to profanities. The amount of diversity and
flexibility provided by Hindi swearwords is in no dimension even comparable to
what the fragile Duck provides. Let me tell you my journey from introduction to
casual acquaintance to deep friendship with Hindi and its expletives.
When I joined engineering and was surrounded by Hindi
speaking folks I first heard the words Pancho and Macho (seriously, at the age
of 17). I was initially taken aback by its perverted meaning, but was later
explained how it is casually used as a manner of speaking and not meant
literally. Through the first 6 months, I observed as people used these words in
different contexts, to mean different things; I was shocked; amazed by the wide
applicability of these words. It was probably during the fag end of my first
year that I introduced these words into my vocabulary. And since then, there
has been no looking back.
My personal favorite has always been Pancho. I have been
widely criticized and appreciated for my frequent usage of the word, of course
by different sets of people. Let us see how Pancho is a useful word to express
various emotions.
|
EMOTION
|
PANCHO
|
|
Anger
|
Pancho!!
|
|
Shock
|
Pehen…cho!! (wish there was a way to record sound on this)
|
|
Dismissal
|
Bhak Pancho!
|
|
Trouble
|
Pen chu gayi
|
|
Aggression
|
Pancho!
|
As you can see from
the simple analysis above, Pancho can be used in different contexts to express
various deep emotions which are extremely difficult to express otherwise.
Hence, I urge everyone to freely use Hindi profanities in
their daily conversations. They complete some of the most messed up as well as some
happy moments of your life. If you are uncomfortable using such words, please
try to accept them as a way to express one’s feelings and not interpret it
literally; the same way all of you have casually made room for Ducks in your
life, please don’t forget the home grown Pancho.
