Mind Your Language

If you speak Hinglish you know that of which we speak. If not, maybe you are just a bit glassy, or perhaps you are a bevakoof.

Or you might just want to reach for Bajinder K. Mahal’s 128-page dictionary, The Queen’s Hinglish: How to Speak Pukka.

Mahal asserts that Hinglish is the world’s fastest growing hybrid language, sweeping through Bollywood to corporate India. Mahal, a British teacher, dismisses criticism that Hinglish undermines the purity of the English language. “Language is not set in stone. It is fluid and organic. Chaucer’s English is not the same as Shakespeare’s English,” she says.

So start brushing up on your Hinglish:

chamcha a lackey; an obsequious person; a sycophant.

desi authentically south Asian.

eve-teasing the sexual harassment of women, especially in public.

filmi melodramatic.

kitty party a gathering of women who meet regularly to host sweepstakes and exchange gossip.

yaar a friend.