I am reading a fun little book called Indian English, published by Lonely Planet. The book attempts to explain the difference between English, Indian English and Hinglish (which is a mash-up of Hindi and English). Although my Hindi teacher, Guruji, was unimpressed by the book, it is clearing up more than a few points of confusion for me.

As well as explaining the development of English in India, how it is used today, and how it is combined with Hindi (and strongly influenced by Hindi), the book acts as an introduction to Indian culture. It briefly covers many areas of Indian life such as Bollywood, cricket, food, fashion and family and society, and of course provides lots of examples of commonly used terms in Indian English, Hindi and Hinglish.

Note about the cover: My copy has the fun term Total timepass! on the front, rather than My goodness. And it’s true, it is a total timepass, man!

Indian English is a bone fide form of English, and it is the English spoken by Indians in India today — though as a second or third language. It was of course largely influenced by British English, but also by Hindi and American English. So you now hear sentences that contain very proper British English terms (You said that thrice!) or Hindi grammar construction (You have a job, isn’t it?) or American slang, such as the use of the word man (Just do it, man.). In the book, they call this the Chutneyfication of English; in other words, the Indianisation of English.

Personally, I love it. I find it very vibrant and expressive and also very typically Indian, in the sense that it defies rules to accommodate the reality of millions of people, hundreds of languages, dozens of religions and all of the other chaotic, confusing, pluralistic, democratic ways in which India exists today.

Hnglish is a mix of Indian and English that requires fluency in both languages to master. A common expression, for example, is ek minute, which means one minute: I’ll be there in ek minute. Or kya problem hai? which means, what is the problem?

I find that Bollywood uses Hinglish a lot, even in movie titles: Jab We Met. My Heart Goes Hadippa. And my India friends on Facebook constantly mix up English and Hindi in their status updates! (Thank goodness, after several years of Hindi study, I can usually understand.)

More often than not, an English word is thrown into a Hindi sentence — usually keeping the Hindi construction, which puts the verb at the end of sentence. (English is subject-verb-object; Hindi is subject-object-verb, or just object-verb.) But the movement of words is not just in one direction. Did you know these words originally came from Hindi: Khakis, jodhpurs, pyjamas, verandah, bandanna, bangle, pashmina, bungalow, jungle.

Some of my favourite expressions and idiosyncratic uses of English include:

- do the needful, for do what’s necessary

- the proliferation of  ing-verbs, as in: You must be knowing my brother?

- instant verbs, as in: He was charge-sheeted. (When a criminal’s name is added to a charge sheet at the police station, it means he was charged with a crime.)

- addition of ji to names as a sign of respect as in: Gandhiji, Mataji

- chello, which means, let’s go

- achcha, which means okay

- pass out, which means to finish school

Would love to hear from others some of your favourite expressions. I find having a few Hindi and Hinglish expressions in my back pocket often comes in handy while traveling.

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