Mind your language !

Long ago, in college, reading the famous marathi book "Swami" , the opening scene struck a different cord. A marathi hindu monarch, Madhavrao peshwa's entry in his darbaar is announced with "Ba-adab, Ba-mulahija, hoshiyaar...." !!! and a list or urdu - persian(farsi) sounding titles.. strange isn't it? Not so much ..if you consider that the persians and arabs had ruled india for such a long time, that a lot of the local vocabulary got interspersed with persian and arabic words. Much time has passed, but the marathi we speak today is  still so chock- a-block with such imported words, it will be difficult to imagine a day without them..

Well then, how about the word .. roj (every day) itself .. does it gel with urdu roja.. eg.. mai das rojon se intejaar kar raha hoon..

For that matter, urdu is a melange of prakrit (khadiboli), sanskrit , persian (farsi) and arabic ..  Zuban-i Urdū-yi Muʿallá("The language of the exalted camp)

The official correspondence of Shivaji and other maratha rulers of the time probably used these words liberally.. words like bahaduri, sarnaubat, inam, watan..khas.. marji..firmaan

Some words have changed their pronunciation a bit, a the "ज " pronunciation especially is different in marathi.. like jid जिद becomes जिद्द  . likewise हद becomes हद्द 

We also find words with "बे " denoting without.. बेफिकीर ( उर्दू बेफिक्र ) and बेइज्जत , बेधुंदी  

And if you had the bad fortune to go to a police station, you might have also heard.. ते आमच्या अखत्यारीत नाहीये ( उर्दू इख्तीयार - control) . Remember katrina dancing to the racy "race" number.. खुद पे ना मेरा इख्तियार है। 

Then we have those which we have heard quite often.. शहर.. हुशार (उर्दू होशियार), फक्त (उर्दू फकत), फरक (फर्क), जहाज , चेहरा 

There are some words which sound similar but which are used differently, so not sure if they have the same root.. for eg in hindi/ urdu we say .. आपने दुरुस्त (correct) फ़रमाया. In marathi दुरुस्त is used in the sense of repair (to set right..to correct?)then there is जबाबदारी.. although this word is used in hindi (जवाबदारी), the more common word is जिम्मेदारी. 

There used to be a column in sakal saptrang by U.M.Pathan , retired principal, Fergusson college on this topic. It analysed in detail the root of the words, and the original persian/ arabic word. There are some sites as well..

The words can also be heard in religious festivals. The kumbhmela has a शाही (like a बादशाह) snan.
आणि सालाबाद प्रमाणे पेणच्या सर्वांगसुंदर गणपती मूर्ती आल्या आहेत। 

I think there will be many many more.. will keep adding as i come across. If you like this, maybe you can add to it, or "like" the post. that will be a good बक्षीस (उर्दू बक्शिष ?)


References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/marathi-language
http://www.milligazette.com/news/4048-shivaji-spoke-better-persian-than-marathi

Used vehicles mania

Postscript

Its been 4 years since my first car : http://amitnsathe.blogspot.in/2011/04/dreams-come-true.html. Its also a really long time since posting on this blog..

When I bought a 10 old Maruti Alto at that time, I never expected to take it anywhere beyond my office, which is 6 km away. The long drives were just a dream, and possibly taking it to the expressway , a mirage.

Its not often that I exceed expectations! In office, well , never, as a rule :-) . One of my former bosses jokingly referred to me as "Slow moving item" . Working in accounting at that time, in a company struggling with  inventory management, that observation was indeed apt.

Well in 4 years, I am to my third car already. This is a Maruti SWIFT ZXi model 2012, purchased last year (second hand) from olx. Or probably quikr or carwale. Its been so often that i am changing vehicles in the last 4 years (well 3rd car and 3rd two wheeler ) that i no longer keep track o anymore. If you consider transactions on both buy and sell side, thats nearly 10 transactions on these "used goods" sites. Probably olx should give me some medal for propping up their business ...

Not only that, we also managed a few trips to mahabaleshwar and kolahpur. If people take 4 hours to kolhapur, I may take 5 or 6, but who cares ! Well looks like some people do. Having built my "reputation" as a slow and careful (really a redundant word here, added just for effect ) driver, people are cautious not to allow me to take the wheel when we go in groups.

A few days back, changed my bike and "upgraded" to a 2 year old Yamaha FZS. This is the time of the year where many from the huge student fraternity in Pune complete their academic courses and go back to their hometowns. Transferring a vehicle from one state to another isnt really a piece of cake, so the best way is to sell locally. That means really good deals for the buyer.

Why do you need to change the bike again, my wife asked. After 8 years of marriage I have learned  its better to pretend not to hear..

I took the papers for transfer to my regular RTO agent (regular because thats probably the 5th or 6th transaction with him in last few years.) . He looked at me with suspiscion. Finally no longer able to contain his curiosity, he asked if i was some sort of old vehicles agent, like himself. I assured him that i was not competing with him, and all the transactions were on my personal account.

Well looks like changing vehcles has become an obsession. Next on target is a 200 CC bike, but waiting for a good one to come on scene. Pulsar 200 ns comes close, but after you get used to yamaha's super refined engine, anything less becomes boring, probably upcoming apache 200 will meet the specs..

Planning to take the bike to Mumbai one day ..