The Hinglorati are delighting in the return of Dick & Garlick, a Bombayite’s lingoblog which had gone on a six-month hiatus. D&G dissects neologisms in Hinglish, Indian English, Bonglish, Tamlish and other lingual collisions, some apt, others just hilarious. Here’s D&G on ‘Vitamin M’:
Vitamin M: An Indian English colloquialism in which the M stands for money. It can be used as a nudge-nudge-hint-hint euphemism for bribes and speed money, or to cynically acknowledge the factor that makes the world go round. A phrase for greasy babus and elderly Uncles…“We are all craving too much for Vitamin M,” says a bright, cool kid. `M’? Money of course! (The Hindu, Jan 6, 2003)
On being called a vern. This one even works in American English because of the Ernest Goes to Camp movies (‘Hey Vern?’):
‘Vernac’ is Bombay college lingo for a student schooled in an Indian regional language, a slang abbreviation of the word ‘vernacular’… Like its North Indian equivalent, HMT (Hindi Medium Type), vernac can be used to dismiss someone as a country bumpkin, as provincial, unfashionable, or unsophisticated… in the 90s, they labelled the starlet Mamata Kulkarni a ‘vern’ and frequently mocked her Maharashtrian accent.
On ‘hazaar fucked’:
… she claims that ‘hazaar fucked’, that classic expression from English, August is ‘one of the phrases that, along with Yeh Dil Maange More and We Are Like That Only, ushered in the rise of Hinglish’…“… Hazaar fucked. Urdu and American,” Agastya laughed, “a thousand fucked, really fucked. I’m sure nowhere else could languages be mixed and spoken with such ease.” (Upamanyu Chatterjee, English, August)
I have no hesitation recommending the blog, but someone with the ontological talents of R. Devraj shouldn’t use a title evoking a German cannibal :)
