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In the 1950s in our village Muthukur on the Coromandel Coast, there were no 'babus'.
It was always either an 'Ayya!' or 'Swami!' or 'Saar (sir)!'
No one added a 'babu' to his first, second or last name. It was either a 'rao' or 'sastry' or 'sarma' or 'murty' or 'reddy' et al.
The first we met a Babu was in our 'social studies' book. We were asked to mug up the names of our country's president, vice president, prime minister and a whole lot of cabinet ministers in the center and state. How different now when the names change every fortnight...here is a news item:
...With Qureshi's sacking, the northeastern state (Mizoram) has seen the departure of six Governors in just nine months since the Narendra Modi government assumed office...
I wrote a fun-verse in Telugu on this news item, which goes (to the few who can read Telugu):
whose import is that a child is normally born after nine months of hard labor, and here is a case where in nine months a new child is awaited in Mizoram while six husbands (patis) have changed meanwhile!
Anyway, there was this our first president of Free India, born in Bihar, and called 'Babu Rajendra Prasad'.
We were amused at this 'babu' word and thought it was endemic to Bihar. This was proved true when we came to the other Babu also born in Bihar...Babu Jagjivan Ram.
...Posted by Ishani
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In the 1950s in our village Muthukur on the Coromandel Coast, there were no 'babus'.
It was always either an 'Ayya!' or 'Swami!' or 'Saar (sir)!'
No one added a 'babu' to his first, second or last name. It was either a 'rao' or 'sastry' or 'sarma' or 'murty' or 'reddy' et al.
The first we met a Babu was in our 'social studies' book. We were asked to mug up the names of our country's president, vice president, prime minister and a whole lot of cabinet ministers in the center and state. How different now when the names change every fortnight...here is a news item:
...With Qureshi's sacking, the northeastern state (Mizoram) has seen the departure of six Governors in just nine months since the Narendra Modi government assumed office...
I wrote a fun-verse in Telugu on this news item, which goes (to the few who can read Telugu):
162. Qureshi 6th Governor to be sacked in 9
months:
నరుడు నవతరించు నవమాసములు నిండ
దానమీయర నవధాన్యమెల్ల(
నారు పతులు మారె నవమాసములు నిండె
వెంకటాద్రి సుతుడ వినుర
రంగ
whose import is that a child is normally born after nine months of hard labor, and here is a case where in nine months a new child is awaited in Mizoram while six husbands (patis) have changed meanwhile!
Anyway, there was this our first president of Free India, born in Bihar, and called 'Babu Rajendra Prasad'.
We were amused at this 'babu' word and thought it was endemic to Bihar. This was proved true when we came to the other Babu also born in Bihar...Babu Jagjivan Ram.
Although we were quite a caste-conscious lot, we were not told that the first babu was a kayasth while the second a harijan (the approved term for 'mala' or 'madiga' who lived in a separate hell-hole on the outskirts of the village...we didn't yet hear of the Scheduled Castes or Dalits or Mahadalits or Neo-Buddhists).
Anyway the two babus above differed in one respect: the first one lived and died a Congressman while the second was cagey enough to remain a minister till the last day of Indira's Emergency at the end of which he became a turncoat hoping to be the next prime minister, but alas, the nation was not yet ready for the likes of him.
The first 'babu' that got added to the name in our family circles came a decade later: this cousin of mine was christened: "Ravindra Babu" and when I asked why, his poet-father told me that he was a fan of Rabindranath Tagore. I was by then in Bengal and was familiar with the babus there....their babu was an add-on to their first names, like, Gouri Babu, Girija Babu (both males though), and Gagan Babu, Barun Babu et al.
Another decade later, there were these twins in my friend's household who were named: Raam Babu and Giri Babu. The babu culture seemed to have caught on, when another decade later we had our Chief Minister called Chandra Babu Naidu:
Another decade later I met a chap named Sai Babu and when I told him I knew all about the Sai part but why 'babu', he said his parents were fans of a Telugu film hero called Mohan Babu:
Another decade later by when I had lost my wife and was musing in the balcony what to blog that day, little Ishani (3) arrived singing a film song and I asked her what film it was from and she replied: 'Sitamma Vakitlo' and she added that the hero of that film was named Mahesh Babu:
And I ribbed her saying that he looked more like a 'baby' than a 'babu', and she hit me hard with her tiny fist... Mahesh babu turned out to be her favorite hero then.
This 'baby-babu' dichotomy was by then common in our South Indian households for a female and a male kid respectively. And here is a true story:
There was this Tamilian Lecturer, by name Chandrasekar, who was biting his nails at KGP awaiting the results of the nine-month labor that his wife was undergoing in Bangalore. And one fine morning he got his much-awaited telegram from his brother-in-law stationed at Bangalore:
"Congratulations new arrival stop mother baby fine"
He was relieved but not overjoyed till he traveled to Bangalore and found to his shocking surprise that it was not a 'baby' but a 'babu' after all...
The meaning of Babu has completely changed now, and everywhere in India Babus and Babudom go with our IAS officials and their red tape:
The cartoon shows Cameron greeting an elephant, symbolizing India. Riding on the elephant are a group of what we can suppose to be Indian politicians and businesspeople (note the factory). Cameron is accompanied by Business Secretary Vince Cable, who is holding a Hawk jet (a £500m deal for BAE Systems to supply Hawk jets is expected to be one of a string of high-profile contracts signed during the trip). Meanwhile, the elephant's legs are caught up in red tape.
...Posted by Ishani
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