Friday, June 09, 2006

Small silly things about mumbai..

Its when guests (and especially guests from USA)come that you realize the small silly things in India. Things so small and silly that you just laugh about it when brought to your notice.

Some questions asked to me by my guests right now..

What does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean??

Shouldn't it be "PLEASE HORN OK" instead?

Why do cars drive this close by?? they can almost peep into our window and say something to us.

What does "HARAMI" mean?

Does everyone break signals here (run redlights is what they call it)??

Do they serve vegetarian food in MEC DOENAALDS here?? (they were trying to imitate the desi gujrati twang of english)

Why has it suddenly become so hot?? (when they came to town, it was the peak of the rains that time)

How can you use the hand shower in the toilet, how can you not get wet and HOW can you not use the tissues??

Why are their so many bugs here??

Is that it?? that cheap??

Why does the maid enter without wishing a good morning and leave without saying bye??

Can I bargain here??(they wanted to start thier bid with One rupee)

Does Sancha icecream mean icecream that has Sanchad in it?? ( Sanchad is black salt in gujarati)

and the best one:

Is that a drive-by mandir, or a walk-thru darshan temple?? (the small temples painted on tree trunks on the pavement with bells hung above it)

I hardly know what to answer. I have vowed to raise some of these topics on the Mumbai metblogs so that maybe I can have an answer ready soon.
(I really dont know wht HORN OK PLEASE means)

I have been on my feet from last thursday slogging every minute out. Every minute. The balls of my feet hurt terribly and all my limbs have turned to dust. And I feel girlishly happy. Exhaustedly happy since I have been shopping every waking minute in this last week. More saris than I can count, more salwar-kameezs than I care for and oh. jewellry enough to fill a queen's chest. Lol before you gasp out letme tell you that only 0.5% is for me. My mom's best friend's daughters' are in India for a vacation/some shopping/and lots of socializing. I was always very fond of them, more so because of the way they took care of us when we were in chicago a couple of years back. This trip has brought me a lot closer to them. And when i like people, and am close to them I like taking care of them too. I love pampering them.

I had them eat all the best junk food in India (cooked not raw ofourse which they were allowed to.) I took them to all the best hangout I could (more are left but that will be comvered soon). I went sight seeing with them to places I had nt been to earlier ( flora fountain and Haji Ali) and stayed up till 5 30 every night- chatting to each other, just chatting, or watching movies together.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its HORN PLEASE, OK? if you know what I mean... lol, Must be fun, trying to get themm talk the in-ddi-yyan way and showing them around... cool. have fun

IndianArchie said...

Hmmm...maybe its a typo...It should actually read HORNY OK, PLEASE?

Guess it refers to the truckers basic needs and the appeal for the same...

just thinking.

IndianArchie
Musings that Amuse
Think Dull

Aniruddha said...

Drive by mandir or walk-thru temple ? haha .. I cant stop laughing... who said that ? Thats the best I have heard so far ..

and road side food .. I miss it so much .. pani puri with that guy holding that puri in his hands and dropping it into 'pani' .. making other dishes with the same hands .. and washing the dirty dishes with supposedly clean water :) .. and still I miss all that .. pani puri, bhel puri, dabeli, sev aah ! ... it was so much fun .. you have to eat it on road to enjoy it ...

anyway, wikipedia has this to say about 'HORN OK PLEASE' ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_OK_Please

jeh said...

The wiki page doesn't shower any light on the subject.The defn which i have overheard or seem to have been believing for a long time now is, during old days(thats how the eldies mention it)the word OK use to be written on extreme right on the rear side of the truck with a red light below; whereas the word HORN OK seem to be on left resptvly. Hence if the guy has to overtake the car HE will blow the horn and the truck driver is suppose to switch on the red light giving him a signal to overtake! AS SIMPLE AS THAT.But as the rule of thumb goes on running red lights so is true on following such a custom.

~The Dream Catcher~ said...

That kind of confuses me even more..