No more excuses ji

Ratna Raman 

LANGUAGE is fluid, rather like moving traffic on the road. Individuals using language function pretty much in the manner of vehicles that move from one place to another for all sorts of reasons. You could drive a vehicle to work, as sport, for pleasure, or as an enthusiast. Language lends itself to similar situations. The columnist commenting on language is like someone overseeing traffic, handing out the occasional ticket or challan to offenders, in the manner of traffic cops.

 In spoken language, minor or trivial errors continue to jostle the steady flow of correct speech. In gregarious, Hindi speaking, North India, the expression ‘ji’ is an ‘honorific’ (term implying respect). In casual exchanges involving greetings and thanks, Indianisms such as ‘hello ji’, ‘namasteji’, ‘thank you ji’, come into play. Persons in authority are referred to as ‘madamji’ and ‘sirji’, while brides and grooms address their parents-in-law as ‘papaji’ and ‘mummyji’. Such usage while not being ‘the Queen’s English’(correct British English), does little harm and makes only for ‘venial’ (pardonable, trifling, from Latin ‘venia’: forgiveness) errors. Arguably, the addition of ‘ji’ makes language cordial, providing respectful familiarity.

Titles, such as ‘uncleji’ and ‘auntyji’ (‘aunt’ is correct usage, ‘aunty’ is an Indianism) add to easy address and lend themselves to comic situations. While ‘maaji’ or ‘mataji’ does provide a certain gravitas, thanks to Bollywoood’s iconic mothers, ‘behenji’ remains ambigiuous. ‘Behenji’ is not merely a respectful way of addressing a sister or an older woman. In slang, unattractive or unfashionable women are termed ‘behenjis’. This rather frown-worthy expression, confers little power. Mayawati’s indignant resignation from the Rajya Sabha recently, although political patriarchy and media address her as ‘behenji’, confirms this. 

Men are respectfully addressed as ‘bhai saheb’ and is another instance of how genders work in real life. ‘Bhaiji’ created confusion due to the prevalence of the popular term ‘bhaji’ which describes vegetables that make pav delicious. ‘Bhaiya’ is used to address unfamiliar males since ‘bhai’ is now synonymous with underworld dons.

Men often introduce a wife as ‘the missus’. Missus is a corruption of ‘mistress’, the female equivalent of ‘master’. Missus was the wife of an ordinary ‘mister’ while ‘lady’  referred to the wife of an aristocratic ‘lord’.

Taking the name of the wife or the husband in public is traditionally   viewed as inappropriate.  Terms such as ‘joru’ and ‘patni’ for wife and  ‘mard’ and  ‘pati’ for husband suggest ‘conjugality’ (marriage relationship). Embarrassed men and women  therefore refer to their other halves as ‘paapu ke papa’ and ‘munni ki amma’, often opting for the more impersonal ‘aji sunte ho’ or  ‘suniye’. 

‘Family’ is the unattractive Indianism used to routinely introduce wives in the cow belt.  It serves as a ‘euphemism’ (replacement for an embarrassing word) for wife. ‘Wife’ is grammatically correct because a family comprises of children, parents and sometimes grandparents. In a culture that cringes at any public display of affection, the expression ‘spouse’ is perhaps more acceptable. 

More objectionable is the expression ‘anyways’. Logically, the plural ‘many’ enables an acceptance of   ‘many ways’. However ‘any’ is singular and cannot be paired with ‘ways’. Such usage is the equivalent of driving through amber lights, instead of waiting.