(18 Sept ’11)
For some reason, Indian
television, films and plays have a most putrid sense of humour. Farting and
pooping, hiccupping and stammering are supposed to be funny. Fat people, deaf
people are to be ridiculed. Santa-banta jokes are in the same league as
Rajnikant jokes … mostly borrowed from western Irish ones. Mona-darling was an
original joke-item once upon a time. I always wondered who created them.
Whatamind. I don’t know whether anyone has taken the trouble to translate (and
whether that humour is translatable, the Mad Magazine). Irreverent, sometimes
even irrelevant, politically most incorrect, that was one of the few satires
one could relate to. It was about the US of A, yet someone like me who hadn’t
stepped out of the country, could laugh at/with it. Such is the power of good
humour. Local humour, instant wisecracks that dissolve one into splits of
momentary laughter are things that can’t be replicated, but are forever stored
in one’s memory, to be recalled only rarely. I once had a boss who never
laughed heartily. Didn’t trust him; for lack of laughter is also lack of
humanness. Although I must admit that many very serious, laughterless people
are also very kind and giving.
Thanks to blogs, thanks
to word of mouth (this idiom has become nonsensical in the internet era)
advertisements, I have recently been introduced to really hilarious and thought
provoking Hindi poetry (try http://www.poetryguru.com/), a facebook group known
as The Punnery, samosapedia and Faking News. For the first mentioned, knowledge
of both Hindi language and contemporary happenings is important. Each language
probably has its own such site. I once met a businessman-poet who toured India
regularly to read his funny poems. Another poet, a Tamil potter who lives in
the Dharavi slum, sms-es his verses to about 500 numbers daily. His ‘readers’ actually sponsor his second-class railway
ticket to villages and towns in Tamil Nadu so they can hear him recite his
stuff. This I learnt from a fellow writer. The power of the funny poem can’t be
underestimated. The Punnery is highly recommended to anyone who has a flair for
words. Or anyone who just loves to smile. The puns are in Hindi-English, plain
modern English, US English, words from Bollywood are thrown in. It’s surprising
how many variations and combinations people come up with. All that hilarity
comes to me on a chair in the corner of my room. Thank you, internet.
Samosapedia and Faking
News are sites which scholars may like to take a look at. The former deals with
vocabulary and the evolution of the Indlish language in India. To those of my
generation whose thought processes are in English, the site can sometimes irk,
sometimes tickles, but it never fails to attract attention. It calls itself the
Definitive Guide to South Asian Lingo. A must visit site for lovers of
languages and culture. An example: an Indian is never 100% sure. He’s 99.99%
sure. That .01% of ‘bad luck’ or ‘anything might happen’ is included. So also,
his age is always qualified by what he’s going to be… 24 years complete, 25th
running… aha, how we love to complicate when a simple number would have
sufficed. We don’t live in Panaji, we are ‘based’ there. Also, we ‘do the
needful’, not what is necessary. The growth of language is fascinating. BTW,
cum in Indlish means ‘plus’, ok? Like: he’s a doctor-cum-builder. We aren’t
getting into accents here, from the North-East to Kerala, the misunderstandings
they create would go into volumes.
Lastly, my current
fave, Faking News. Headlines: “Huge Ganapati statue in Mumbai flaps ears and
waves sond objecting to the size of
the plastic sheets covering it during the present rains.” If it could drink
milk some years ago, this is quite believable. Another: “Airport authority of
India is planning underground parking for aircraft to increase space for
slum-dwellers.” And another: “Air India pilot arrested for starting Laughter
Club on flight: apparently he told the passengers that his flight was on time.
One passenger died of hysteria.” Ok, these ones I made up, but do visit www.fakingnewscom for more such khabar.
Keep smiling.
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