My maid, who lives with us, often mispronounces English words. With the unexpected effect of hitting the nail on the head!
For instance, she says "China" instead of "channel" (her favourite TV 'China' being STAR PLUS, with its plethora of primetime tearjerking soaps). Maybe she's just being prophetic, CHANNELS in India are about the only thing that are not being MADE IN CHINA at the moment.
She also says "Anyplane" instead of "aeroplane". Again, it is an insightful comment on the aviation sector, especially since any number of airlines are now fighting it out for their piece of the sky.
But the one I just love is "TOPIC JAM" instead of "TRAFFIC JAM". It is almost poetic in its possibilities. Check this out:
Elder daughter sitting in front of a pile of books right before exams, wondering where to begin. TOPIC JAM.
Packed Staffroom at our college. Teachers talking in loud voices across the room at cross-purposes, everybody unable to hear anybody else. TOPIC JAM.
Fourth lecture after recess. Poor students yawning away at my Communications class, head already full of Accounts and Economics and Maths. TOPIC JAM.
Me racking my brains, stumped and struggling to come up with new names/lines for pens/financial services/just-about-anything for clients who seem to be insufferingly insatiable. TOPIC JAM.
Newspapers refusing to budge beyond the misadventures and misdemeanours and misappropriations of Lalit Modi, even though the IPL is history. TOPIC JAM.
Me gazing at "still working"/"loading"/"refreshing" monitor, cursing slow Internet traffic speed. TOPIC JAM.
Lovely phrase, is it not?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
ERROR? RIGHT ON!
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24 comments:
Ha ha ha .. u r so funny and hv found a perfect maid too :P
@ home, we find milk, veggies and all that in the bridge )
Me back from a vacation and catching up! TOPIC JAM!
My maid calls it Trophic Jam. As in Catastrophic. That is pretty full of possibilities too.
Incidentally, this summer I would love to take anydamnplane to China to escape the topic jam and heat of Mumbai.
:) so topical!
me too was away from log world and now catching up on all the blogs that I follow :P TOPIC JAM for me too !
funny yet logical post :)
haahaa that was hilarious..most of the maids in kolkatta that I came across called tomatoes as tomatom..and i kept making them say it again and again
LOL !!!
That was lovely ! Topic Jam ! Indeed !!!
Wow! That was hilarious!
:) good one
Thought I had followed you, just realised I haven't. I'm going to do it now
excellent! I had a servant who used to say similar kind of stuff like - drum room for drawing room. Best was one young driver I had who used to "mausam"for motion! :)
Hmm..blogs are TOPIC JAMS too.
But you don't seem to face any topic jam for your blog posts. Very interesting once again.
nice post..and i don't know what comment should be posted on which element of this post!..whether it should be about English mispronunciation, or funny servants..look TOPIC JAM! :)
Very funny indeed.
Our maid interchanges "kitchen and chicken" :)
wow!!
we had a guy working at our place....he understood that anything in english that ended with ing was present tense...
so when we asked what happened to the tea one day....he said, just a minute, chamching the chai.....as in stirring in the sugar.
Too good!!!
hahaha..loved topic jam..today's topic jam in all the chinas will be Kasab :)
Perfect! I think the Chinese dude before me agrees too!! :P
it is indeed, love. I really love this one. Thanks for your thoughts on that tricky subject. xoxoxoxo.
Awesome phrase I say :D
great post ...."Topic Jam" all across, all the time - really !!!
writers block - TOPIC JAM
This is classic Sumi-Humour! My maid calls Westside "website"... atleast even that means something! :)
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