In every region there are certain flash words in its lingo that are impossible to translate. They are ineffable. Any attempt to translate them into single words is doomed to not only failure but derision. These words may be native to a State, District, or even an extended family in a Village. They are of uncertain etymology. And can't be precisely explained in other words except by giving Examples.
They have an inimitable Force, Power and Charm of their own.
One such word native to our Nellore District is: "Pudding".
It has nothing to do with the sweet dish at all; not even remotely. No one knows how or when it came into existence. It is not understood by folks of even neighboring Districts.
Here is a short explanation before proceeding to Examples:
In every gathering of people there is an implicit, invisible, un-protocolled but accepted hierarchy. Anyone who overtly breaches this hierarchy in an obtrusive way is said to act like a "Pudding".
It is not brashness, arrogance, ignorance, know-all-ness, uppishness or any known combination of such traits subject to a Formula...it is just that...
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1. Around 1978 I was trying hard to quit a 14-year spell of chain-smoking, rather unsuccessfully, by fits and starts (it needed a loving wife later on). I was then staying for the summer vacation at our home in Nellore District.
One evening at dinner time all seven of us siblings were eating seated together (on the good old floor), my parents watching. None of my six sisters or my parents knew a whit about smoking or nicotine addiction. As a matter of false respect to elders I was not smoking at home but used to do a vanishing trick every once in a while.
Talk somehow veered round to addictions and suddenly my youngest sister, 12 good years younger to me, started sort of lecturing about will-power, heath-consciousness, wastage of money and such irrelevant things in a roundabout but obviously pointed way.
I kept quiet for ten minutes, and when she was through, I simply said: "Pudding!"
That's it!
She got up like a rocketing pheasant from her seat, accused me of unsportiveness, vindictiveness, arrogance, insensitivity; and burst into tears and left in a huff.
Just one word did it!
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2. 1960s and 70s were field days for what were called Elementary Particle Physics. Everything was in a mess and the Standard Model yet to take hold. Anyone who did a Foreign Ph D in it thought he was Someone. And pronounced himself thus.
There was this young man Dr S fresh from Canada who joined us as a new Faculty for a while. Very quickly he became a friend of me and DB (who were sharing Office in C-239) by virtue of the legend that we both shared SDM as our Guru. A charming fellow full of enthu and a very good sport otherwise.
At that time I was cajoled by our HoD, HNB, to do the Time Table Work, much against my will. The TT-in-Charge was then powerless as far as allotting Courses went which was done by HNB himself. So it was a routine clerical job with lots of false prestige and good nuisance value.
At the beginning of the Semester, Dr S suddenly barged into our Room and asked me if I was the TT-in-Charge. I mumbled yes. He then declaimed rather abruptly:
"Give me either QM 3 or 4 or QED or Particle Physics Elective or Stat Mech or GR or Math Phy at the Final Year Level....I can teach them all since I studied them for my Ph D Qualifiers in Canada".
I replied softly that Course Allotment was done by HNB and he should meet him with his special interests.
He left, perhaps straight to HNB's Sanctum Sanctorum which none of us dared do.
And I winked at DB and said: "Pudding!" (I had taught DB the nuances of this magic word) and both of us laughed uproariously and adjourned to the Canteen.
A couple of days later, I was into HNB's Office after School Hours with my Red-Register (Lal-Khata), which had the Course Allotments from the inception of the Phy Dept and was handed down generations, to jot down the Allotments for the coming semester.
As I was reading out the Courses one by one, HNB was giving out the names of their Teachers. When it came to First Year B Tech, HNB said: "Give the First Year B Tech Chemical Engg Section to Dr S who is a newcomer (and needs Orientation)".
I looked up from the Lal-Khata and saw that familiar naughty smile playing on HNB's lips and joined him (I didn't teach him "Pudding" but I knew he was muttering to himself whatever was the nearest word in East Bengali lingo).
More Examples in the Next Post
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