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Gitmit, Gitmit:
Part II

FATEHPAL SINGH TARNEY

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very pleased with the responses I have received to my earlier “Gitmit, Gitmit: Linguistic Overload” column. Given my limited Punjabi, it is taking me some time to process all this very interesting feedback.

By the way, in enumerating the various connotations of the English word “hot,” I neglected to mention that it can also mean “wanted” in the criminal sense. Thus, I am seeking a Punjabi word for this definition.

It is noteworthy how the East and the West differ so markedly in terms of certain imagery. For example, the owl, apparently in Punjabi parlance, is suggestive of limited intelligence, whereas in the West, given its connection with the Greek goddess, Athena, it is associated with wisdom. Hence, “the wise old owl.”

The dragon in the West is associated with evil and the abduction of beautiful maidens in medieval folklore rescued by knights in shining armor, whereas in China, the dragon is associated with good fortune.

In the West, a rainbow is considered a good omen, but in an anthropology class I took many years ago, I learned of an Amazonian Indian tribal group that saw a rainbow in a very negative way. These South American natives believed in a monster that resided in a swampy area whose muddy waters had a sheen whose multicolored reflection reminded these people of rainbows in the sky.

Fascinating how the human mind can attribute very opposite attributes to identical or very similar natural phenomena.

Once again, I seek input from readers of other examples of this kind of thing.


May 2, 2015

Conversation about this article

1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), May 02, 2015, 6:43 PM.

Many years ago I was attending an ITU (International Telecommunication Union) conference in Port Dickson, a seaside resort. Among the delegates there was a Punjabi group of Pakistanis. There was an Indian group too but had no Punjabi in it. I was naturally drawn to the Pakistanis as they spoke my dialect of Punjabi as well, and of course, had the usual unmatched Punjabi humour. Since I did a lot of traveling in those days I always carried a Philip light-weight electric iron with me as I never used the costly hotel laundry service. One morning I had a knock on my hotel door and this conversation took place: "Bhai ji, may I borrow your istari, please?" (In Punjabi lingo, 'istari' means electric iron, as well wife!) Playing on the pun, I jokingly asked, "Which one?" "The one that gets hot," he said. "Just touch her and you will learn a lesson for life," I warned him.

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Part II"









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