Take it easy yaar!
As is the man, so is his language. So goes a Danish proverb. Well, judging by that, I guess the younger generation could well be called vibrant, creative and, above all, weird! With slang being an integral part of their vocabulary, their language is bound to be all that and more... what can I say?
Speaking in the language-next-to-gibberish is `in' coz you ain't got the funk if you can't speak the tongue!
Okay, I just made that up, but do you get the picture? Let's face, it's fun! Then again, one should probably refrain from using slang in front of certain people.
Trust me, it wasn't easy convincing my teacher that I didn't mean "I want to be sent out of class'' when I said `gimme a break'!
How and when one gets addicted to slang and swear words is virtually impossible to trace. It's just one of those things that cannot be explained, like premonitions, instincts or how you were inexplicably drawn to the television even though your New Year resolution was to try and avoid watching the idiot box all day!
But lets try anyway.
Primary school is the age of the `re' fetish. No one really knows how this strange syllable originated, but for all I know, it seems to end every sentence of theirs. Then comes the
I-don't-know-what-it-means-but-I-heard-him-use-it phase. After all, it's not really that important that your words should actually mean something. Anything for cool!
I mean, who's going to convince them that `rad' is not an actual word?
And growing up has no effect whatsoever. Maybe they finally outgrow bouts of `Hinglish', which by the way is their unofficial lingua franca, but they do move on to greener pastures or in this case, weirder slang!
While some might use certain four-letter words with utmost easy and frankly, frightening frequency, there are those who choose a more, well, creative path! I'll have to admit, coming up with something like `barbaric saccharine isn't all that easy!
The celluloid has its linguistic influences too. Be it `Sholay' or `Kuch Kuch Hota Hain', movies have always had an impact on our slang.
Take `Munna Bhai M.B.B.S', for example. We're probably past `Mamu', but `apun log' are still in love with the `bhai' lingo!
And television is not far behind. F.R.I.E.N.D.S is probably over, but Joey's "How you doin?" is here to stay!
Having said that, I guess the fact that you find a different language or at least a different version of the same language in every nook and cranny of our country has an impact too because we sure love mixing all em' up!
Some would argue that this is an unhealthy trend. What can I say? No offence to any of them, but `light theesuko babu... '
By S. Anne
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