Indenglish

We’ve all heard of Hinglish. English with a touch of Hindi, mixed so appropriately that it hardly sounds unusual. “Mood kharab ho gaya”, “Mera toh bad luck hi kharab hai” are some of them. 

 But there’s another version of Indianised English too. In the strict sense, it’s purely English; it only uses English words and there’s no contribution from Hindi or any other Indian language. And yet, it will make an Englishman roll his eyes in horror. I call it “Indenglish”.  

The thought struck me last evening while at my office canteen. Ours is a workplace where we have to wear a uniform five days a week. Yeah, just like we did in school. (I’ll reserve my comments on that for now.) We get a breather on working Saturdays though, when we’re allowed to dress as we please. (Hallelujah.)

 So coming to the point…people here refer to this Saturday attire as “colour dress”. The first time I heard this phrase was in school. But hey, we were kids and all that. During later years these terminologies were remembered and laughed at. But today, here I am, in a corporate environment, surrounded by highly educated people. And yet, any clothing that isn’t the uniform is referred to as “colour dress”.  

This is just the tip of the iceberg – one place, one example. All over the country, the use of Indenglish is rampant. Another one that never fails to tickle my funny bone is “I had headbath today”. A bathing ritual that includes washing of the hair is apparently a “headbath”.  

Some forms of Indenglish come very naturally even to relatively fluent speakers of English. The word “prepone” is the best example of this phenomenon. Contrary to common belief, there is no such word in the language. A previously decided date is never “preponed” to an earlier date, it is “advanced”. The opposite of “postpone” is not “prepone”. It is also incorrect to ask someone what his/her “good name” is. This is the literal translation of the Hindi phrase “shubh naam”. I reckon that since most Indian names have auspicious meanings, “Aapka shubh naam kya hai” is just a polite way to put it. But it does not work the same way in English. People just have names, not good ones!  

My work involves calling and meeting up with partners and customers. When I ask to be connected to someone, pat comes the question from the receptionist, “Yourself??” I cannot but suppress a giggle each time I’m asked to introduce myself in that manner.   

The list goes on. Singularizing of words that must always be used in the plural form is another common mistake. “Pant”, “trouser”, “knicker” are some of them.

Did I hear someone say, “We are like that only!!”