{"id":2177,"date":"2016-04-13T15:16:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T09:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/mi-marathi-fakt-convenient\/"},"modified":"2016-04-13T15:16:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T09:46:45","slug":"mi-marathi-fakt-convenient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2177","title":{"rendered":"Mi Marathi… Fakt When Convenient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p> grew up in a half <\/span>Gujarati<\/span><\/a>, half <\/span>Marathi<\/span><\/a>, and entirely English-speaking <\/span>household<\/span><\/a>. Needless to add, after a quarter century of identity crisis<\/a>, my proficiency in both Gujarati and Marathi remains average at best. And while I\u2019m grateful that I don\u2019t have to subject unsuspecting bhais<\/a> and bens to my sub-par Gujarati on a regular basis, I can\u2019t say the same about Marathi. Speaking the language is a necessarily evil. <\/span>\n\nThis was due in part because I grew up in Vile Parle, where my building was nestled between a misal pav dukaan and a Shiv Sena shakha. Most of my building friends studied at Maharashtrian Central or Parle Tilak Vidyalaya. Parla, as fellow manooses prefer to call it, is the mecca of everything Maharashtrian. Testament to this is an ungodly number of eating establishments with set menus comprising vada-thali peeth-bhajia, and kaande pohe. For variety, you go to Shiv Sagar because apparently, that\u2019s what Madhuri Dixit did while she was studying at the nearby Sathaye College. If at least one person does not tell you, \u201cTula maahiti aahey na? Madhuri ikde pav bhaji khaayela yet hoti,\u201d you\u2019ve landed at the Jogeshwari Shiv Sagar. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nIt doesn\u2019t take long for Maharashtrians to glue themselves to the achievements of other successful Maharashtrians. A normal Tendulkar fan is rabid enough; but a Maharashtrian who might have at one point spent two hours at Shivaji Park will make it a point to brag about how Achrekar Sir and Tendlya are his distant relatives. <\/span>\n\nMuch like breathing the same air as Sachin, in most of Mumbai, speaking basic-level Marathi is also considered social currency<\/a> (unless you\u2019re in Bandra<\/a> or SoBo, where your social media following will immediately take a hit). In your friend circle, if you\u2019re the guy that can speak Marathi, you\u2019re the first one they look to when they need bailing out. No, I mean that literally. Rudimentary Marathi speakers are adept at doing \u201cjhol\u201d and possess an expertise in facilitating \u201cmandavalee<\/a>\u201d (negotiations) with cops. While it\u2019s no big deal to most locals, some of my North Indian friends have expressed astonishment at me not having put it on my <\/span>r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/span><\/a> yet. I always laugh it off, but I\u2019d be lying if I\u2019d say I hadn\u2019t considered it. If MS Word can be a skill set, so can mandavalee. <\/span>\n

Blurting out a \u201cKaka, mala zaau dya na?” with a sorry face is a reflex action to get out of even regular Marathi conversations that I\u2019m dragged into.<\/blockquote>\nI capitalise on this skill inadvertently: Blurting out a \u201cKaka, mala zaau dya na? (Kaka, please let me go)\u201d with a sorry face is a reflex action to get out of even regular Marathi conversations that I\u2019m dragged into. It stems from a decade-long career of being apprehended by cops at stop signals and then having to present my carefully rehearsed, verbose pleas of \u201cKaka, maazhi pocket tight aahey, please hey shambhar ghya ani mala jaau dya. Lahaan bhau samjhun maaf kara.\u201d (Kaka, I am broke. Please take this \u20b9100 and let me go? Think of me as your younger brother.) Works like a charm!<\/span>\n\nCops are not the only ones at the receiving end of annoying Marathi pleas. Domestic help, IMO, are most ruthlessly exploited by us pseudo-Marathi speakers. An entire generation of bais<\/a> have been emotionally manipulated by their maalkins: \u201cTumhaala udya pagaar chaalel na? (It\u2019s okay if I pay you your salary tomorrow, right?)\u201d and \u201cMaagchya ravivari daandi marleli tumhi, mi kahi bolali kaa? (Did I say anything when you took last Sunday off?)\u201d <\/span>\n\nCloseted Marathi mavens come into their true element when dealing with pesky BMC karamcharis. After all, fast-tracking their housing society verification depends on how well they articulate a simple, \u201cTumchya <\/span>chai-paani<\/span><\/a> saathi pan aapan kahi adjustment karu ya na? (We can figure out a way to take care of your chai-paani.)\u201d<\/span>\n\nBut since today is Marathi Language Day, in pockets of Western Suburbs and SoBo, we\u2019re met with declarations of \u201cAamchi Mumbai besht!\u201d and \u201cMi Marathi!\u201d. And a lot of legitimate Marathi speakers are looking at this as reason to celebrate since they assume everyone is gushing over their <\/span>mother tongue<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nWhy doesn’t the Marathi Manoos realise that it\u2019s all a ruse? Mumbai residents that are not Marathi speakers brush up on a few phrases to save themselves a beating. And the ones that learnt it as a compulsory third language during their sub-par\u00a0<\/span>SSC<\/span><\/a> education, use it to peddle corruption, sweet-talk officials, and manipulate their domestic help. <\/span>\n\nFor all the spiel about \u201cMarathi Manoos Jagaa Ho\u201d, we are really just a naive, oft-exploited<\/a> people. A few compliments about our food and spirit and a day dedicated to our local language is all the gratification we need. That, and the occassional chai-paani, of course.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In most of Mumbai, speaking basic-level Marathi is considered social currency. We rudimentary Marathi speakers are adept at doing \u201cjhol\u201d and possess an expertise in facilitating \u201cmandavalee\u201d with cops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":2178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[4413,4414,3935,3937,4415,80],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-aamchi-mumbai","tag-devendra-fadnavis","tag-maharashtrian","tag-marathi","tag-misal-pav","tag-mumbai"],"yoast_head":"\nMi Marathi... Fakt When Convenient<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In most of Mumbai, speaking basic-level Marathi is considered social currency. 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