Dreaded S-Word

1993

two kids from class 3 fighting as Abhishek watches on (still be christened with any of the present day nicknames).

bippu*- saale kutte kahi ke???
ritesh*- shocked and about to breakdown
Abhishek and rest of the audience- Haaaaauuuuuuuuu......
ritesh*- full-tu crying, I will complaint this to Ratnam Mam [My fav teacher in school, bestest teacher ever, will write about her sometime)

Pumped by anger, insult and what not ritesh decided to complaint and bippu got punished, junta was obviously shocked at bippu's behavior and happy that bippu got punished.

1999

All of us on the playing, tiddu*-famous for not blurting out any bad word till date fires one on pattu, pattu laughs like hell and so do the others, tiddu rages and starts a bat-beating session on pattu, pattu and others still laugh and welcome another member to the gang.

[*Names have been changed to confuse identities]

Gone are those days, in primary school using the S-word (something similar to a Brother-in-law too, your wife's brother, I don't know why it became an abuse in the first place) meant that you were the full-time rowdy in class, other kids parents wanted their kids to stay away from you, and it was not at all good public behavior, you were the big time culprit of every wrong deed done in class. Slowly though, with secondary and higher education an Indian student gets graduated in profanities too.

Nowadays when I see kids using the F-word is much more than feeling, its mostly going away from our culture of using the S-Word to perfection. Although lots has been said about girls not using it but I know a few who use it nicely. But lets not get into gender aspects as of now.

Although the Hindi/desi equivalent of the F-word is considered quite crude in its usage but I don't know why people consider the formers usage as much more decent (relatively). Both are the same, a conservative may say that they are bowing to western culture, but I think its much more to do with the popularity of such terms in Hollywood, its counter-part Bollywood has been not so liberal in usage of abusive language.

I picked up foul language sometime in mid-school, when we passed school there was only one or at most two boys still away from its active usage. In my college I found only one among 200+ boys (but he had his own versions of curses, which went quite above everyone's head). The good things about using foul language are,

• Good way to throw out your anger and frustration, go and shout from a roof/hill top, or do it after getting drunk.
• Gives you a good time cursing your bosses, peers, any boy who roams around with good girls or mostly anyone.
• Comes for free and is quite relieving, much more than dhyana or yoga.

The only things about it which is not good and I don't like is when its done in a seriously serious manner. People start fighting over it and makes matter stupid. When I and most of my friends do it, its mostly for fun, although we know making fun of other people is a serious crime, but everyone does it, and criminals are bound to use some foul language here and there. Some serious misapprehensions which are associated with this are,

• it slows down with age- I think this skill mellows with age, the usage becomes more or less perfect and less hurtful to others.
• you shouldn't say it in front of girls- ???? pointless

Although in front of parents and relatives better don't use it. I mean you can but better don't. You might have noticed it, sometimes when you are at home, and things haven't rubbed off from your tongue you feel like shouting sometimes, do it in a bathroom, safest place to do it.

By the way some unique ones which I have come across in my life are,

- Indi-Poi Indrapal- used by a schoolmate, he considered this to be the mother of all profanities
- Dusht Bijuke - Bijuke is Pure hindi for Scarecrow, my friend in college made it quite popular.

I am not mentioning lots of them which would like a bit indecent on my blog.

Whatever be it, never ever use it to hurt anyone, as long as its for fun, use it...

And for all those like the F-Word, try using the S-word!!!