Angrezi Boli

Even after formally graduating many decades ago, my English vocabulary continues to be updated. Every city one has lived in has contributed in equal measure. The process had begun half a century ago when i encountered Burr Burr Un Road in Calcutta. The real name, Brabourne Road, was lesser known. Calcutta’s most popular car repair shop was in Bhowanipur and was called Mobility Garage. The mechanics there would just change a bhaiser (washer), a boos (bush) or turn an ishkroo (screw) and our Humpa Sitter (Ambassador) would be as good as new. There was an open ground nearby where we boys would play kirkeet in the style of Pataudi Sr but using a tennis ball; and for ishtumps, we used ishticks. Our driver Tiwari had stopped, one hot day on Burr Burr Un, to top up our Humpa Sitter’s Reddy Avatar. He said that in hot weather, the level of water should be checked daily. I realised that our then neighbour from Andhra, Mr Reddy, had nothing to do with the Reddy Avatar — radiator — that cools the car. Some years later, from the vantage point of our fifth floor terrace flat in Bombay, we could watch cars driven from Chowpatty all along Miriam Durrai, also known as Marine Drive. At dusk, the headlights of the likes of Humpa Sitter, Phett, Ash Tin, Vyas Hall, Daaj Mur Curry made a pretty sight along the Queen’s Necklace. From the General Motors stable, there were Puntuck and Olds Walla Bai. There were also Cud Luck and Pakkad cars, belonging to some rich people.
The Times Group’s Enny Nooj — Evening News — had come into being as the rival of the eveninger Bombay Sentinel. Newsboys would jog past our Marine Drive house shouting Enny Nooj Enny Nooj and Sant Naaal. They’d come from the direction of Chachi (Church) Gate, past the water front art deco five-storey structures like Sigri (Sea Green) where Nargis stayed, then past Krishna Mahal where Suraiya stayed. The newsboys would make their way across the maidan, which was not yet Wankhede Stadium — that is, they would go from Miriam Durrai to Miriam Line. The burgeoning traffic in Bangalore nowadays causes pollution due to Ek Josh (exhaust) gases from vehicles. Look for this one as you drive past Johnson Market, Mico, at Adugodi: you will find a compound wall with a puncture repairer’s big lettering that says Walkanosing — it sure vulcanised my vocabulary.