..randomly surfing, when I found out that the word 'katta' in Hindi, much adored by Indian teenagers, especially the male species, has a description on Wikipedia also.
According to Wikipedia, the word 'katta' is used to describe an event that is either wrong or undesired to a person. It can be used as "tera toh katta hogaya" or "mera toh katta hogaya, dad got to know about the marks." Or it can be used in a casual tone just to warn someone about something like "yeh mat kar warna tera katt jayega". It can be roughly translated into English as failure or embarrassment or things not turning out the way you expected them to.
'Bhai, kya kaati uski!', 'Kat gaya!' and 'katta karna' are some more phrases, commonplace in Delhi.
Katta hona can be best illustrated by this incident-
Parul's father is in the army, heading a unit, and is posted in Ranikhet. So this year in March, I, and half a dozen other girls, along with Parul had taken a short trip to Ranikhet after our exams had gotten over. We got really nice rooms, right next to the bachelors [ ;) ], but sadly, they were given strict instruction to, ahem, ignore us. Which is just sad, but not delving deeper into that..
..on our last day there, we were scheduled to have lunch with Army Aunties [army wives], in the army club and play Croquet with them later. Someone came up with the brilliant idea, that why don't we all, yes, why don't we all dress up in our suits, since we had all been asked to carry our Indian attire, and it will anyway look nice. Are you sure, I asked dubiously, but in the end we all decided for it.
So the eight of us girls, walk out, past the soldiers drilling, feeling weirder than ever. 'We all look so dumb,' one of the twins remarked, and because I could do nothing else, I burst out laughing.
We arrived, all decked up and came face to face with the Army Aunties who..
..were dressed comfortably in tracks and jeans, looking casual and laid-back.
Kat gaya.
But it turned out to be a nice afternoon as we played Croquet and joked about it, and then the Army Aunties invited us for dinner too, at their homes.
And then everyone decided that they were going to wear their dresses for the night, because, what the hell, it was the last night and the Army Aunties had already seen us in our awkward best. So although, we knew it was a little over the top, we decided to dress up.
So again, we arrived, all decked up and came face to face with the Army Aunties who..
..had not even bothered to change.
Kat gaya.
But being the awesome sports that we are, this became a running joke. Aunties must think these girls are really mad, Parul said giggling, and I couldn't agree more.
One day, S. was telling me about something, ki kisi nr kaat diya, aur kisi ki kat gai. So I asked him, confused, 'Kat gai, kaat diya, is katta a boy or a girl?
He looked at me with laughing eyes. 'Kaat diya is a boy, because mai teri kaat ta hoon, and kat gai is a girl because teri mujhse kat ti hai!' which earned him a nice kick from me.
According to Wikipedia, the word 'katta' is used to describe an event that is either wrong or undesired to a person. It can be used as "tera toh katta hogaya" or "mera toh katta hogaya, dad got to know about the marks." Or it can be used in a casual tone just to warn someone about something like "yeh mat kar warna tera katt jayega". It can be roughly translated into English as failure or embarrassment or things not turning out the way you expected them to.
'Bhai, kya kaati uski!', 'Kat gaya!' and 'katta karna' are some more phrases, commonplace in Delhi.
Katta hona can be best illustrated by this incident-
Parul's father is in the army, heading a unit, and is posted in Ranikhet. So this year in March, I, and half a dozen other girls, along with Parul had taken a short trip to Ranikhet after our exams had gotten over. We got really nice rooms, right next to the bachelors [ ;) ], but sadly, they were given strict instruction to, ahem, ignore us. Which is just sad, but not delving deeper into that..
..on our last day there, we were scheduled to have lunch with Army Aunties [army wives], in the army club and play Croquet with them later. Someone came up with the brilliant idea, that why don't we all, yes, why don't we all dress up in our suits, since we had all been asked to carry our Indian attire, and it will anyway look nice. Are you sure, I asked dubiously, but in the end we all decided for it.
So the eight of us girls, walk out, past the soldiers drilling, feeling weirder than ever. 'We all look so dumb,' one of the twins remarked, and because I could do nothing else, I burst out laughing.
We arrived, all decked up and came face to face with the Army Aunties who..
..were dressed comfortably in tracks and jeans, looking casual and laid-back.
Kat gaya.
But it turned out to be a nice afternoon as we played Croquet and joked about it, and then the Army Aunties invited us for dinner too, at their homes.
And then everyone decided that they were going to wear their dresses for the night, because, what the hell, it was the last night and the Army Aunties had already seen us in our awkward best. So although, we knew it was a little over the top, we decided to dress up.
So again, we arrived, all decked up and came face to face with the Army Aunties who..
..had not even bothered to change.
Kat gaya.
But being the awesome sports that we are, this became a running joke. Aunties must think these girls are really mad, Parul said giggling, and I couldn't agree more.
One day, S. was telling me about something, ki kisi nr kaat diya, aur kisi ki kat gai. So I asked him, confused, 'Kat gai, kaat diya, is katta a boy or a girl?
He looked at me with laughing eyes. 'Kaat diya is a boy, because mai teri kaat ta hoon, and kat gai is a girl because teri mujhse kat ti hai!' which earned him a nice kick from me.
Hahaha this was so funny! Loved the phrase though we don't use it around here. We use the cruder "lag gayi" which is closer to "screwed over" than a mere expression of failure or embarrassment. I think it is a bastardisation of the Mumbaiyya "vaat lag gayi" which they used so endearingly in Munnabhai.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's always a girl. In the sense, sabki lagti hai. :D
Okay, a question. Those Army guys follow instructions that obediently? They really ignored all of you? Gah, why do they have to be such sticklers for following orders? ;)
And this one was sooo reminiscent of your earlier blog man! Just when I thought we weren't going to read anything like that again. Absolutely loved it! :D