Babloo #03 - Desi jargon

Elk is a kind of maan

- A desi friend explaining what an elk is to an European.

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Baseball is like cricket except the other team bats first and I think the one with the ball throws it in a different way.

- Desi girl explaining cricket to an American at the USB plugfest of all places. I did not dare to interfere.

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How's it going?

- The pujari at the Sunnyvale temple while giving me Prasad(am). Reverse culture shock!

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Enga poganum sir?

- New York JFK cabbie after ingeniously discovering that I speak Thamizh. I dutifully called him 'Annein' Sendhil style for the rest of the trip.

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Holy cow!

-  A coworker's exclamation once I confirmed for her that Indians do worship the cow and sometimes offer it its own milk. Holy cow? Exactly!

We tried to popularize 'punidha maadu' for a while but gave up eventually. Maybe we should have stuck to 'Dheiva Maaaaa' which was our second choice.

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Aahsum ra

- One brother from Hyderabad's version of  'Awesome dude'.

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It is all political. Our PM, President are all virgin bachelors.

- Ingenious and indigenous answer to the one question that plagues all single desi junta - 'you are single and a virgin?' - this was valid up until Manmohan Singh replaced Vajpayee and Pratibha Patil replaced Dr.Kalam.

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This is Pankajam calling from Shantha Clara.

- Stanford Radio's Tamil Wednesdays are a blast. Mmm.. sollungo mami.

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Take a left at Senthomas expressway.

- You can always filter out a true blue Madras guy when St.Thomas enters the conversation.

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Maembalam yeri yerangina udane oru Macdonalds kadai varum. Anga right edu. 35-nu oru board irukkum. Adha thaandi marupadiyum oru right edu.

- Driving directions for southies. The 35 board turned out to be a speed limit sign.

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My dad is an Indian - like from the country India...

- Overheard at a birthday party. Desi-let covering for her Dad's accent to her friend who strangely enough looked Desi as well.

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Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge

(after a pause)

Hai

- Southie Desi attempts Hindi with ghori northies

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Its like New York City and New York.

- French dude explaining Madras and Chennai after his solitary trip to India. Thanks mon ami.

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Anything to add?