Cool Bihari: July 2005

Bihari Boli mast hai bhai

LE BALAIYA, ee ka hua? Kahe albalaye huye hain? Etna narbhasane se kuchchho nahin hoga (Omigosh, what's this? Why are you so flustered? Such nervousness won't help matters.) The inveterate linguist may scream at such an apparent contamination ofHindi language but the average Bihari simply loves to throw all narrowparameters of grammar to the winds. For them, the funnier they are, the better their adaptability is into their inimitable lingua franca.

Over the years, Biharis have invented a language, which has an unmistakable stamp of their own. In recent times, its popularity has traveled far and wide beyond the borders of the State and many screen heroes,including Amitabh Bachchan, have mouthed Bihari liches with characteristic elan -a far cry from the days when it was thought to be an infra dig of sorts for anybody other than country bumpkins and unscrupulous politicians to perpetrate such "verbal atrocities".
All that, however, is passe now. Bihari Boli is sweeter than honey now.Not only in Bollywood but also on the campuses of prestigious universities and IITs across the country. Words like harbaraye, garbaraye, bargalaye, thartharaye and dhanmanaye which would have sounded Greek to outsiders earlier are being used with gay abandon by the hep youngsters there. Sobriquets laced with double entendres like "garda", bawaal and dhuan denoting the varying degree of a girl's beauty and sex appeal can be heard not only in Patna University colleges but also far away Fergusson College in Pune. Moreover, a-go, dugo, teengo and chaartho type of numerology which was amatter of disdain not long ago is being accepted even by the stiffupper-lips without any qualms. So, notes sarka do (pass on thenotes)","batti buta do (put out the lights)", Principal ko harka do(bamboozle the principal),burbak kahin ka (you stupid fellow!), hum to biga gaye(I was thrown out) and Hum to huan thebe kiye the (I was very much there) are some of the expressions which have conveniently made their way into the otherwise prim-and-propah St Stephens, New Delhi.

Similarly, coinages like dhakiyaye (shoved), mukiyaye (punched),latiyaye(kicked) and matiyaye(forget it) are the current rage. Hiyan (here), huan (there), kahe (why),enne(this way) and onne (that way) are some of other typical words, which are spoken rather nonchalantly by so-called educated lot in the State. One, therefore, does not get surprised if one hears tanikke for little, nimman for good, anhar for darkness and ejot for lights. For them, colloquial language need not be
tied to any narrow rules. E topicwa par maatha khapane se kuchchho nahi hoga (nothing is to come out of this topic), as one wit commented. Among many characteristics of this language are its terms fendearment. Seldom does one hear people on the streets calling each other by their real names. Raju automatically becomes Rajua, Pappu turns into Pappua,Rajesh into Rajeshwa and Shatrughna at best Satrohna.

This potpourri of all Bihari dialects has also coined new terms forhuman anatomy which would baffle an FRCP if he were to land here straight from Edinburgh. Here gor means legs, moori is substitute to head, ongree is equivalent to finger, thor denotes lips and kapar is synonymous with forehead.
This language also has more onomatopoeic words than probably anyother. Words like tapak se, gapak se, and japak se can be understood by Listening to their phonetical sounds. No longer is Bihari language associated with a few howlers like eskool (school)", teeshan (station) and singal (signal) only. There are certain words which carry the precise meaning but which cannot be properly substituted by any word in other languages. Machchar bhambhor liya is probably is one such example. Bhambhorna is a super word, which means the collective assault of mosquitoes to "bhambhor" you. But then, one might argue, where else do you find so many mosquitoes to bhambhor you.

Right from Laloo Prasad Yadav, who emerges as the best speaker of his ghar ki boli to Shekhar Suman, everybody loves to flaunt his native command of the language. Earlier, Biharis were notorious for atrocious gender sense and shoddy pronunciation. Now, the same traits have become the tour de force of their conversation. The time has certainly come to raise ekadhgo (one or two) toast to the longevity of the Bihari language. "Teengo" cheers to that................

by Giridhar Jha, Patna edition of Hindustan Times, 2000.

Labels: Bihari Boli