Blog entry #11
Kumbaya | Kathe | Kavan | 'Kannada gotthila'
Kumbaya (Mumbai)
"Kumbaya My Lord, Kumbaya" was one of our school prayers until grade 5. Our principal explained to us that this was a West African song, an appeal to God to come and help those in need, and that Kum ba yah was actually "Come by here". The prayer went something like: "Someone is crying Lord, Kumbaya", "Someone is singing Lord, Kumbaya". This and a few other prayers stay with me even today. I remember them like it was yesterday. It felt nice to have all students gather in the assembly and sing together for a few minutes. School prayers - do we even have 'em anymore?
Kathe
Yet another Hyderabadi Hindi word. Kathe is "kehte rehte hai" shortened. (see post on H: dikhru - shortened form for dikh raha hu). This is the equivalent of Anamaata in Telugu (see post on A). Also used at the end of sentences to state what happened, this was often heard among students living in Hyderabad. Observing their slang, it only reminds me of all the Bombay Hindi words that are intrinsic within us Mumbaikars - when exclaiming, we automatically say "Aila!", and anyone who’s lived in Bombay long enough, expresses mild frustration with "Arre yaar!" So when we hear our Hyderabadi friends use "Kathe", we immediately say: "Arre yaar…"
Kavan
I had a short run of watching Tamil movies in 2018, one year after I moved to Chennai. By then, I was both a Vijay Sethupathi and a T. Rajendar fan. I found this movie to be just okay, not as great as I found Vikram Vedha, which I recommend as a must-watch. But one TR phrase stuck with me after this movie. When he dupes the villain and comes out on top, he tells a dialogue, which was apparently his own from an older movie, which starts with: "Vaada en macchi, vaazhakka bajji". So when Akhilesh and I are playing Scrabble and I have an edge over him, or a place for a bingo that he can’t spoil, I happily recite:
"Vaada en machi, vazhaka bajji"
"Un udamba pichi, potuduven bajji!"
'Kannada gotthila'
As Bangalore suddenly grew into the #1 dynamic city, surpassing even New York, rapidly establishing IT companies and startups, there was one other good thing that happened. The language problem kinda-sorta went away. You find most folks as polyglots in Bangalore. They can not only speak Kannada and Hindi, but also English, Telugu and Tamil. But one phrase that still comes in handy at certain small shops or with Auto fellows who are not Uber or Ola Auto guys, is this: "Kannada gotthila". It means "I don’t know Kannada." Once you’ve established that, you have to figure out how to continue the conversation in the next best language that has to be common between the two of you, usually Hindi. But telling this phrase right at the start saves them the trouble of repeating and keeps you from staring at them blankly, like a cat got your tongue!
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