Of falling hair and canine nomenclature
I went to a haircare expert yesterday. A friend had recommended her to me, telling me in great detail about her tonics and hair packs. And in my mind that led to the creation of an image of this diva with Rapunzel-like hair, running a hair-spa in the posh environs of Safdarjung Enclave.
I finally reached there and my impressions were shattered. My entry was marked by great whoops of joy from a 60-something woman with completely unmanageable curly hair. Apparently all the women in her family are as tall as yours truly. The accent was as Bihari as it gets. She repeatedly said chau instead of che or six. She also kept on referring to her servant as baua, which is Bihari for a kid of the male kind. Her teeth were paan-stained. If there were any doubt in mind, half-an-hour later, it was removed with madame telling me that she hails from Darbhanga. Her husband from some other sleepy village closeby. Btw, he wasn't present because he was away in Sitamarhi.
As I sat there with my hair looking as if an oil-slick hit it, a dog arrived out of nowhere. Now, I have a morbid fear of canines and I immediately raised my legs onto the sofa. And heard Bihari aunty say, "Cookie, nooooo...'' Apparently, she has another one called Dan.
And that set me thinking. Why is that most pet dogs in India have such anglicised names? Is keeping a pet still looked upon as a privilege of the upper middle class and therefore it has to have an angrezi name?
Or is it coz of the umpteen Bollywood movies with dogs called everything from Johnny to Tuffy? Or is it because calling them Om, Virk and Hari instead of Tom, Dick and Harry is just not the same thing?
My thoughts took me back in time to Ranchi. The year was 1990. My mom's cousin had arrived there in 1989 and they used to live near our place. Their landlords, the Prasads, used to live on the ground floor while my uncle used to live on the first floor. In 1990, they decided to keep a dog and the name given to it was Rocky. Raaaaaaaki, Prasad aunty would sing.
As a child, of course, I hadn't quite internalised the concept of all dogs must have English names or that several English names are looked upon as exclusively canine.
So one day, sitting at a neighbour's place, I turned to my parents and told them that I didn't like my name. And that I would really like it if they renamed me Tommytikki. I thought that was a really cool name (In my defence, I have to say I was only four). All the adults present there, naturally, thought otherwise.
Anyway, after a long, rambling and a pretty-much meaningless post throughout which I have been thinking really hard, I have finally managed to recall one pet dog with an Indian name.
It was the last dog my neighbour's got. It was called Chuk-chuk and I think that made it sound cuter than all the Tommys I have known in a quarter of a century of my existence.
I finally reached there and my impressions were shattered. My entry was marked by great whoops of joy from a 60-something woman with completely unmanageable curly hair. Apparently all the women in her family are as tall as yours truly. The accent was as Bihari as it gets. She repeatedly said chau instead of che or six. She also kept on referring to her servant as baua, which is Bihari for a kid of the male kind. Her teeth were paan-stained. If there were any doubt in mind, half-an-hour later, it was removed with madame telling me that she hails from Darbhanga. Her husband from some other sleepy village closeby. Btw, he wasn't present because he was away in Sitamarhi.
As I sat there with my hair looking as if an oil-slick hit it, a dog arrived out of nowhere. Now, I have a morbid fear of canines and I immediately raised my legs onto the sofa. And heard Bihari aunty say, "Cookie, nooooo...'' Apparently, she has another one called Dan.
And that set me thinking. Why is that most pet dogs in India have such anglicised names? Is keeping a pet still looked upon as a privilege of the upper middle class and therefore it has to have an angrezi name?
Or is it coz of the umpteen Bollywood movies with dogs called everything from Johnny to Tuffy? Or is it because calling them Om, Virk and Hari instead of Tom, Dick and Harry is just not the same thing?
My thoughts took me back in time to Ranchi. The year was 1990. My mom's cousin had arrived there in 1989 and they used to live near our place. Their landlords, the Prasads, used to live on the ground floor while my uncle used to live on the first floor. In 1990, they decided to keep a dog and the name given to it was Rocky. Raaaaaaaki, Prasad aunty would sing.
As a child, of course, I hadn't quite internalised the concept of all dogs must have English names or that several English names are looked upon as exclusively canine.
So one day, sitting at a neighbour's place, I turned to my parents and told them that I didn't like my name. And that I would really like it if they renamed me Tommytikki. I thought that was a really cool name (In my defence, I have to say I was only four). All the adults present there, naturally, thought otherwise.
Anyway, after a long, rambling and a pretty-much meaningless post throughout which I have been thinking really hard, I have finally managed to recall one pet dog with an Indian name.
It was the last dog my neighbour's got. It was called Chuk-chuk and I think that made it sound cuter than all the Tommys I have known in a quarter of a century of my existence.
posted by 8 by 52 at 5:30 AM
8 Comments:
Purki's dog is called Jugni - isn't that a really pretty name? btw- paddy has lots of nicknames which are very indian - did i tell u i call her janardhan - dont ask me why tho.
Yes, you told me. Apparently you do so only when you are very angry or irritated.
Tommytikki - well, I would have loved to call you that.
i had a friend, gujrati from baroda (cant get any worse). He had a boxer. he named him 'Dog'. So when people would ask him 'you have a dog called boxer?' he'd say, 'no, i have a boxer called Dog.'
Well come to think of it, tommyticky was not such a bad name, as unique as your real name is......
Well, using an Indian name for dog can land you in an embarassing situation where your guest's name or nickname is your dog's name. And if you call your dog, without thinking, your guest will respond.
Of course, you can always use it on people you don't like. But then you might need a lot of dogs...
LMAo@nish ... mad bleddy bugger that friend of yours!
Have been away on Mars all these days.
Am back now that it's finally raining cats and dogs in Delhi.
Toe Knee: I was pretty fond of that name too, till I grew up and realised that my name was not that bad after all.
Nish: Your experiences seem to be as weird as mine :-)
Vivek: Yes, it wasn't. But I would much rather stick to my own name.
Hyde: May be you are right.
SwB: :-)
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