Apr 13, 2008

Howzzat? - modes of dismissal in Mughalese

The film "Jodhaa Akbar" clears up a mystery you didn't even know existed, which goes as follows: if the Urdu phrase for dismissing your inferiors from your presence is "takhliyaa", what is the Hindi equivalent?

The answer, as practised by the likes of Suhasini Mulay in the film, is "ekaant" - a fact confirmed by my trusted Urdu dictionary which similarly defines the Urdu "takhliyaa" in English as "solitude". Perhaps it was the stentorian effect of Prithviraj Kapoor that had led me to believe "takhliyaa" was an active verb - literally, a royal "get out!". "ekaant" sounds extremely PC in comparison, and not what you want in your quiver as "ma badaulat".

Now that a sporting allusion was introduced in the title of this post, one also wonders whether the top-ranking Mughals, users of elegant languages like Persian and Urdu that they were, ever asked people to eff off. "takhliyaa, battamiiz!" should do nicely, methinks.

No comments: