Sacred Games (140 page)

chikniya
‘Chikna' is ‘smooth', like a girl's skin. So, to call a grown man ‘chikna' or ‘chikniya' is to say that he too pretty to be a man.

 

chillar
Loose change.

 

chimta
A pair of tongs.

 

chingri macher curry
A Bengali preparation of prawns.

 

Chinki
Chinese.

 

chirote
A fried sweet-dish made from white flour and sugar.

 

chodo
To fuck.

 

chodu
Somebody who is fucked.

 

choklete
Chocolate. Code used by the G-Company for dollars.

 

chokra
Literally, ‘boy'. Used often for street kids.

 

chole-bature
Spicy chickpeas and a bread made from white flour. A Punjabi dish.

 

cholis
A choli is an Indian blouse, usually worn with a sari or a ghagra (skirt).

 

choola
Stove.

 

chotta
,
chotti
Small, little.

 

chowk
A crossroads.

 

chowki
Post, station.

 

chowkidar
Watchman.

 

chunni
A long scarf worn by women, usually with a salwar-kameez, or with a ghagra-choli.

 

churi
Knife. Can also be used for someone who is sharp, sly. And is used as slang for a beautiful girl by the G-Company.

 

chut-chattoing
Cunt-licking.

 

chutiya
Fucker. ‘Chut' is ‘cunt'. ‘Chutiya' is often used as an epithet for somebody stupid. To say, ‘He is a real chutiya' is like saying, ‘He is a real moron'.

 

chutmaari
Fucked-up. Somebody who is an absolute ass.

 

CM
‘Chief Minister'. A chief minister is the highest elected official in a state in India.

 

crores
A unit in the traditional Indian numbering system, equivalent to ten million.

 

daana, daane
Literally, a daana is a grain or nodule. Used sometimes in a vulgar way for clitoris. Also, in the plural, Bombay slang for bullets.

 

dabba-ispies
Children's game—hide and seek, or ‘I spy'. Hence ‘ispies'.

 

dada
Tough guy, hoodlum.

 

dada-pardada
Ancestral. Literally, ‘Grandfather-great-grandfather'.

 

dak bungalow
A traveller's rest house.

 

dakoo
Bandit.

 

darshan
Literally, a sighting of something, to be able to see someone or something face-to-face. In a religious context, darshan signifies a ‘seeing' that is touched by the divine. Pilgrims will travel thousands of miles for a darshan of a goddess in a temple, or of a guru. It is in the seeing of the guru, and in being seen by the guru, that the blessing is conveyed.

 

DCP
Deputy Commissioner of Police.

 

dehati
Somebody from the rural areas, a country bumpkin.

 

desi
From the Sanskrit ‘des', which means ‘home' or ‘nation'. Is used to describe anything that is Indian-made, traditional, home-made.

 

DG
Director General (of police).

 

dhaba
A very inexpensive, unpretentious restaurant, often built on the side of a road or a highway and frequented by truck-drivers and travellers.

 

dhanda
Trade, work.

 

Dhanwantri
The physician of the gods, and the creator of Ayurveda—he teaches it to Susrutha, the father of Ayurvedic surgery.

 

Diwali
The ‘festival of lights', which in north India is celebrated as the Hindu new year. All over India, the festival signifies the victory of good over evil. People wear new clothes, share sweets, decorate their homes with diyas or lamps, and set off firecrackers. Gambling—especially card-playing—is also part of the tradition.

 

diya
A diya is a traditional lamp—usually, a cotton wick floats in ghee or oil. The body of the lamp is made of clay or metal.

 

dudh-ki-tanki
‘Tank (or reservoir) of milk'. Used as a descriptive term for large breasts.

 

dum
Force, strength.

 

dushman
Literally, ‘enemy'. In the Indian army, the word is often used among officers and men when they talk about the foe. ‘The dushman is positioned along that ridge'.

 

ekdum
Absolutely.

 

elaichi
Cardamom.

 

FA
‘FA' stands for ‘First Arts'. Passing the First Arts examination used to allow candidates to enter a university. (This system and nomenclature are no longer used.)

 

faltu
Without use or purpose, extra, good for nothing.

 

Flush
‘Flush' is another name for the Indian card game of teen patti (‘three cards').

 

gaadi
Literally, ‘car' or ‘vehicle'. Therefore, something you ride.

 

gaand
Ass, as in posterior.

 

gaandu
Ass-fucker. Often used as a synonym for ‘idiot'.

 

gadda
Mattress.

 

gadhav
Gadhav is ‘donkey'—a fairly friendly term of abuse in Marathi. You might say this to your best friend if he does something stupid.

 

gali
Lane, alley.

 

gana, ganas
A category of divine beings who serve Lord Shiva, and his son, Ganesha.

 

gandugiri
Being a gaandu, doing something which constitutes gaanduness. That is, doing something idiotic.

 

Ganga Jamuna
This is the title of a Hindi film released in 1961. The film is about two brothers; the older brother, Ganga, is framed for a crime by a landowner. He becomes a bandit, but educates his younger brother, Jamuna, in the city. Jamuna becomes a police officer. At the end of the film, Ganga is killed by Jamuna.

 

ganwar
An uncouth person, a bumpkin.

 

Gar ek baar pyaar kiya to baar baar karma…
Couplets like this are often painted on the back of trucks, taxis, and auto-rickshaws:

Gata rahe mera dil…Tu hi meri manzil
A line from a song from the Hindi film
Guide
(1965): ‘My heart sings, and you are my only destination…'

 

Geet gaata hoon main
Line from a song from the Hindi film
Lal Paththar
(‘Red Stones', 1971): ‘I sing songs…' The full line is, ‘I sing songs, I hum them…'

 

ghanta
A big bell. A small bell would be ‘ghanti'. In Gaitonde's gang, they use ‘ghanta' as synonymous with ‘screwed up' or ‘messed up'—instead of the usual ‘fachchad'. In Bombay slang, ‘ghanta' also means ‘dick'.

 

gharala paya rashtrala baya
This is a traditional Marathi saying: ‘As the foundation is to a house, women are to the nation'. So the implication is that women should be firm, pure, virtuous.

 

ghavan
A spicy snack made from rice flour.

 

ghoda
Literally ‘horse'. In the underworld, it is one of the terms for ‘pistol'.

 

ghodi
Mare.

 

ghotala
A mess. In the newspapers, the word is also used as a term for ‘scandal'.

 

godown
A warehouse.

 

Godrej
A brand name for a steel cupboard. The company that manufactures these cupboards is part of the famous and very large Godrej Group.

 

golis
‘Goli' is derived from ‘gol', round. A goli is something small and round, so ‘golis' are testicles. The other word used for testicles is ‘gotis', as in marbles.

 

gotra
Clan or lineage within the Hindu community. Gotras are generally exogamous, with some specific exceptions.

 

grahastha
A householder, someone who is engaged in the second stage of Hindu life, grahastha-ashrama.

 

Gudi-Padwa
In Maharashra, the day of the new year, which is a celebration of the coming of springtime and the harvest.

 

Gujju behn
Literally, ‘Gujarati sister'. Gujaratis often use ‘behn'—sister—as a respectful form of address, so ‘Gujju behn' has become a slightly mocking way to refer to someone who is typically Gujarati.

 

gullel
A small hand-held catapult, of the sort used by young boys.

 

gur
Jaggery—an unrefined brown sugar made from palm sap.

 

Guru Gobind Singh
The last of the Sikh gurus.

 

hamara pata
‘Our address'. The use of the plural here is formal, not literal.

 

haraamkhor
Somebody who lives on illicit earnings; a thief; an embezzler.

 

Harmandir Sahib
The Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of holies for the Sikh people. Sikh pilgrims from all over the world travel to the Golden Temple to bathe in the lake that surrounds the temple and to listen to readings from the scriptures. The dip in the waters is known as ‘dukh bhanjan', and is believed to banish illness and sorrow.

 

hathiyar
weapon

 

He, chand taaron ne suna
…These lines are from the Hindi film
Tere Ghar ke Saamne
(‘In Front of your House', 1963): ‘Oh, the moon and stars heard it, these beautiful landscapes heard it, even passersby heard the song of my pain'. See also
Tu kahan yeh bataa.

 

hera-pheri
Trickery, crafty deception.

 

hijra
Eunuch.

 

hum
‘We'.

 

IB
Intelligence Bureau—the domestic intelligence agency of the Indian government. It is said to be the world's oldest intelligence agency.

 

Iftekar
A well-known character actor who often played a police officer in Hindi films.

 

inter
Short for ‘intermediate'. Refers to the intermediate examination, which was taken after secondary and higher secondary education (eleven or twelve years).

 

jab tak hai jaan jaan-e jahaan
Part of a line from a song from the famous film
Sholay
(‘Embers', 1975). ‘Until I have life, O life of the world…' The rest of the line is, ‘…I will dance'.

 

Jai
‘Victory to…'

 

janampatri
Birthchart, usually drawn up by an astrologer. The more traditional ones are long scrolls of paper covered with charts and symbols, and can be quite beautiful. Nowadays they are often produced on a computer.

 

jhadoo
Broom.

 

jhadoo-katka
Sweeping and mopping.

 

jhalli
‘Crazy girl'—can be used affectionately.

 

jhanjhat
Bother, nuisance.

 

jhatak-matak
Fireworks and movement, flash and slinkiness. Often used to refer to a woman who is flashy and sexy.

 

jhav
Fuck.

 

jhopadpatti
A settlement of huts, a slum.

 

ji
A suffix denoting respect for the person being addressed.

 

jite raho
‘Live long'.

 

Kahin beetein na ye raatein…
These lines are from a song from the Hindi film
Guide
(1965): ‘May these nights never end, may these days never end…'

 

Kalias
Black people in general, either African or African American. ‘Kala' is Hindi for ‘black', so ‘kalia' (singular) is a derivation. This is slang, and it is quite derogatory.

 

kanche, kanchas
A kancha is a marble.

 

kanjoos
Miser.

 

karamchari
This is a general term for clerk or office worker. It's often used as a designation for workers in government offices—which means that the general public dreads dealing with karamcharis.

 

karhai
A cast-iron pan that is often used for frying. Looks something like a Chinese wok.

 

karo
A verb—to do something.

 

kartiya
An affectionate Marathi term for ‘crazy guy'. You'd use it with a friend or a relative.

 

kasht karein
‘Please take the trouble to…' A very formal way of asking someone to do something.

 

Kaun Banega Crorepati?
Literally, ‘Who Will Become a Multimillionaire?' This is the hugely successful quiz show that millions watch all over India.