Phinglish

P for Punjab

P for Padhai

P for progress

This is the mantra of our state. We are currently in the threshold of breaking the mold and trying to enter into the big bad world of cutthroat competition, industry and the business arena.

We are slowly and slowly reaching there, but let me tell you of the village where I live. It’s an ordinary village and  it is inhabited by ordinary aam Indians who are making the transition to modernity in frightening ways. We are currently gripped  by the Aadhar fever. Bless this program and the team in Delhi that has spun our ordinary lives like a top, a relic toy forgotten under the pressures of the digital game revolution. Imagine, my surprise when the cook says, I’m sorry I can’t come to work. So, I thought someone else has usurped him, in today’s age a woman’s real wealth is not her diamonds or the Ritu Kumar suits she adorns, it’s the staff she has. So, I asked cautiously, why?  He said, I have to make a stool caste certificate.

Trust me, I am fairly proficient in the Queen’s language, but this had me stumped. A stool caste certificate? What in the world was that? And what business was of Nandan Nilekani that he wants a certificate of the bowel movements to transfer the monies in their said account. And then it dawned to me , he wanted to make a scheduled caste certificate. As, you see I am still in splits and also wonder the irony when divisive politics will end.

The second, one was the best and all my kin will love the tailor had come over to take the never ending clothes so he turns around and says, madam, You have this phone. So, I look at him and said, yes. It is working, albeit with a hit and miss hearing coz’ I watered it along with my plants. So he says, please take picture of any thing you like, whatsapp it and I will stitch anything for you.

I am still at a loss at the how technology has invaded our day-to-day living and the adaptation! Just imagine, where we have reached, from magazines, to catalogues from next door country to whatsapp images and how English is seriously become Hinglish with a twist!

My village is on the path of progress and padhai and prosperity, but with a Punjabi twist. This is true India and not is confused with beehive politics or a makeover Bharat.