Anything but polite!

Rajbir Deswal

A FRIEND hailing from Lucknow called up the other day to know the appropriate expression for welcoming someone to a place or an event in Haryana.

I began thinking when she added to clarify that like in Rajasthan they say ‘padharo ji mahare des’ and in Punjab, ‘Ji aayan nu’. Knowing the purport of such greetings being unknown to us Haryanvis, I nearly burst out laughing, but controlled myself lest I should be taken for another rustic who didn’t know the niceties of conversation, especially while talking to a cultured Lucknowite.

I knew that we are not given to extending courtesies of verbalising any kind of welcome gestures, so I tried to explain the contexts of Rajasthan and Punjab, juxtaposed with similar Haryanvi situations.

‘Padharna’ has a totally different meaning in Haryanvi which connotes putting someone literally in dire straits. And ‘ji’? God forbid, ‘ji’ is anathema to us. The honorific address prefixing or suffixing ‘ji’ isn’t known to Haryanvis. This address in Haryana is only reserved for a mother-in-law of the groom in the hinterland.

For some time, I kept mulling over the issue, and found that the near-unavailable Haryanvi expressions of greeting and welcoming ended up being very funny, when translated into English. For example, the best way to welcome a guest is to ask: ‘Kyukar aaya rai?’ It literally and brazenly means, ‘What brings you here?’ Or, ‘Aaja, teri e kami reh rahi thi’, which sarcastically means, ‘Come on, you were the only one left behind (to trouble us)’.

If a Haryanvi doesn’t like someone approaching his gathering, he would say, ‘Yo sanichar kit tai aa gyaa (From where did this Shanichar, meaning one of the dreaded gods, come?)’

Haryanvis make no bones about not being polished enough. Sophistication for us is suffocation and courtesy a luxury. You may never get a straight answer from a Haryanvi. Ask him the time and he may quip, ‘Why? Are you planning to jump into a well?’ Ask him if a certain road leads to the hospital and he may say, ‘Yes, till yesterday it went. I have no idea about it today!’

Grapevine has it that once at an India-Pakistan conference, referring to the then Pakistan PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, our own Bansi Lal had cautioned a senior Pakistani diplomat, ‘Bata diye apne Bhattoo nai, koi galti na karay, ib ki baar Defence Minister Bansi Lal hai (Tell your PM Bhutto not to indulge in any adventurism, for the Defence Minister this time is Bansi Lal)’. A complaint was reportedly made to Indira Gandhi, who laughed away the accusation, telling the diplomat to take it easy since, ‘Hamare Haryana ke log aise hi bolte hain.’

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.