[gvivek75]

What takes the cake for me is an Oriya friend of mine saying lobh (hindi for greed) instead of love. He was expressing serious interest in someone but when he said 'I lobh her man', everyone around just fell off their chairs laughing

[clevermax]

The funniest I've ever heard was

Hi ! Come in... sh*t sh*t..!

You don't want me to mention the origin of this accent!

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Yep, I failed to mention that. Tamil & Malayalam scripts do look similar. But, I'm not sure where the similarities end. Perhaps our Tamil & Mallu friends can throw some light here.
Sinhalese looks a lot like Kannada/Telugu??? Man, this is news to me. Never seen a Sinhalese script before.

Yes, Malayalam and Tamil scripts looks similar. It's relatively easy for a Mallu to learn to speak Tamil and probably vice versa. Same goes with the Kannada - Telugu combination. The scripts are similar. BTW, Malayalam is one of the toughest Indian languages to learn but Tamil is far more easier AFAIK. As a matter of fact, I can read/write Tamil as well, being a Mallu.

ടീം-ബീ എച്ച് പി (team-bhp) Hey I can write Malayalam here. EDIT: டீம் - பீ எச் பீ Tamil as well!

[agspins]

One more thing our driver in mumbai used to call important as impotent.according to him "sara bada log impotent gaadi chalata hai".

In rural Maharashtra you will often notice people referring to Original as Virgin-al.And many Maharashtrians calling five as pha-yu, Zero as Zee-ro, single as Shin-gal, eclairs as ecklars,city as Sh*ty,Separate as Shape-rate.

Similarly in some parts of rural Gujarat, folks use Ha in place Sa, so Saboo becomes Haboo.
In M.P & C.G have seen many village folks use to Eucalyptus as Lipastick.

[sureshkishore]

Originally Posted by agspins

One more thing our driver in mumbai used to call important as impotent.according to him [i]"sara bada log impotent gaadi chalata hai".

I am pretty sure your driver must have meant 'Imported gaadi'. Hilarious nevertheless!

I stumbled upon this thread after 3 years. And still it gets me laughing uncontrollably.

[agspins]

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

I am pretty sure your driver must have meant 'Imported gaadi'. Hilarious nevertheless!

I stumbled upon this thread after 3 years. And still it gets me laughing uncontrollably.

OOps typo, i meant imported.

[prince_pervez]

No offences, my friend had a peculiar way of saying some words starting with the letter 'S'. So there was a restaurant called span we hostelites frequented. For any suggestions for lunch and dinner he used to be first one to speing up and say 'is-span chalenge bhaiyya'. We used to tease the hell out of him, of course all in good humor.
We stopped teasing him when he entered IIM Kozikode.

[Mpower]

Gujju welcome: Please come in. I will bring the snakes for you.

Punjabi: Cmon paaji lets go to Pollol-to (Palo Alto)

[rm_arjuna]

i think nothing can beat this ..
My name is typed as Thirumathi Malliga Arjun ( Ms.Malliga Arjun) in the voter ID card whereas my proper name is Mallikarjuna . In Tamilnad " Mallika " is mostly written as " Malliga " because of Regional influence and which is a womens name in tamilnadu , whereas in Karnataka & AP Mallikarjuna is common names .

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I have heard some people pronounce Schwarznegger as Shivajinagar !

Rohan

My ex-colleague (from Bangalore) used to go to gym regularly to see no result!! and we used to call him "Arnold Shivaji Nagar"

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

@ Thread starter, Please close this thread with moderator's help. I wouldn't appreciate highlighting cultural differences within our country.

Why o why? I won't call it "cultural differences", but rather "cultural diversity" of our great country. And all this discussion is in lighter vein man, nothing to get serious about.

[pb10gagan]

Can you imagine how a UPite or a die hard Bihari would spell Skoda Laura.

There is a song in punjabi:- "Jatt di Marsari dil mangdi" or something like that.
Can you guess what is Marsari?

I have a few relatives that live in the US, Canada, UK. Just listen to them when they come back and try speaking punjabi.
There's nothing more hilarious than that.

Jobs become Jobaan.
Guns become Ganna.
Girls become Girlaan.
Seats become Seataan.

There is a very famous song going on these days up here in north india. Woofer by Imran Khan.
The wording are damn hillarious. Must be written by a UK born punjabi. A few examples are:-

"Baariyaan kaaliyan ve gadiyaan nu mai laavan"
"Speed main 220 te chalaan"
"Black Leather seataan utte aa baih ni"
"40 degrees di dhup paindi"

[Gansan]

Got this by email this morning. It really puts things in perspective IMO;

Tamils are always proud to be Tamizhs ; Pretty courteous (that is what
they think, at least!). They speak yenglish but sorry, no indi (Hindi).
The more common Madarasi (chennaisi...,now?) is an ardent fan of
kireeket matches wharever he may be.

Their counterparts in Bombay think they live in America but speak
Hinglish like ...'are you sure ki Sujata aa rahi hai ya Ill go akela!'
And they take great pride in making stupid mistakes in Hindi Grammar.
The BEST hypocrites in the world. Kyaa...m

Thamizhs, are verrry lecky to have 'simble' neighbours in the keralites
who are a komblex race of peoblle (they migrated around 2000 B.C. from
the middle east, I guess; and now even the Sheikhs feel wary of them)but
they have excellent GK , eat a lot of chooclyte and own 99.998765% of
tyre shops in the world and form 99% of nursing community.

Not far behind the kerals is the telugu desam, who are totally againesht
flaunting their wealthu to the woruldu, though they occasionally come
out withu brick red shirtsu and parrot green pantsu with pleetsu
(pleats). Worustu, no?! But they (think) are greatu in CICSu,Microsu and
COBOLu! Generally sane peoplesu (and so you can always findu them
judgingu, probhingu, queschioningu othersu ...)

The Canadians, excuse me, the Kannadigas aor (are) the coolest in the
south but if there is political unrest in Hersogovnia oare (or) an ebola
virus outbreak in Zaire, they bash up the Tamils in Karnataka. Cauvery
very bad! When it comes to Rajkumar (actor), if a fly sits on his nose,
theyll burn the entire city of Benglore to kill the fly! To hell with
Silicon valley! I-ron firshtu, girlu, Lasht Bussu, roadu, crickeatu,
filamu are some of their favourites.

Maharashtrians are a conservative, confused, complex lot-kar. -Kar, that
is because gavasakar, tendulkar, bahulkar.. confused?? that is because
sitting in southern part of India they would ask the other person 'are
you from Maharashtra or from South India..?' and genuinely wonder why
the other person takes some time to answer the question. They like the
principles of pheejix and their favourite character in the alphabet is
Zay (god knows where that came from). Although soft, peace loving people
but they elect the Shivsena to rule them.

And right there next to the Maharashtrians are the Gujjubhais. They like
to keep kes in the benk and their favourite past time is eating snakes
like paav bhaji, masala papad and pijja at the local snake bar. They
gobble down alak sev like their life depends on it and believe in the
brotherhood of man and sisterhood of woman(everybody is a bhai or a
ben).

If you go further eesht, you land uf Udissa- the land of irron (r is
stressed) where sombalpuroa and Bhubaneshbara are big towns. The people
are bery cordial and if you are Vikram they bill soorly ask you B or
Bhe. They do not sout, sam or soot but occasnally bawsh their phace at
the wasbashin. James Bond Mohanty in our colleze roll nomber jero, jero,
sebhen. AAnd his brother was Asees (Ashish).

Bengalees are bery bery similor, but or bery proud oph Subas Chondro
Boash and Shoatyojit Roy (I used to know a director by name Satyajit Ray
who was also pretty good) and everybody is Xda. I used to havbe a friend
by name Dada. Wonder... never mind. Bot I most conphess, Roshgollas are
bery goooood, tho!

Bihari kids are supposed to be the smartest kids in India (if not in he
universe!). How we wish they grow up the same way,...but... And Biharees
are bery phond of Laloo, Rabdi, Ranchi, Chaara. ka isse bhadiya tumre
pass kooch hai, kaa?! spit spit... spit paan..

UPites and MPites are busy going to ischool with their Ishstainless
ishsteel tiffin boxes and istudying metals to make lots of ishteel.

Punjabis are very sweet and aggressive and offer Rotti Shotti Khayega!
to which I once replied No. He said Tage itu, yaar! By Godu!
Surjeetu,what happenedu, oi?!. Then of course,everybodys a paappe or a
kaakke.Thats Pnjab for you.

And Kashmir (called Cashmir by many, may be because of the amount of
cash spent to keep it in India)?!? I know Roja (or Roza?)was shot (I
mean filmed) somewhere nearby...

But at the end of the day, wherever you are in the world, whether it is
in Sunnyvale, CA; Birmingham, UK; UmmAl Quwain, UAE or Serangoon Road,
Singapore, ask them who they are and you'll get just one answer -
'INDIAN'.

[Mpower]

Seen people in KA pronounce Santro with an h, "Santhro" and Qualis as "Kawa-lis". (s is sometimes left out)

Originally Posted by Gansan

Got this by email this morning. It really puts things in perspective IMO;

Good one...starts off pretty good but runs out of ideas by the time he gets to Punjab and Kashmir.

[mayankk]

This thread is hilarious!!
lemme add, and hopefully revive it.

I remembered some stuff my High school tutor used.
some were seen in the books, and read aloud, and some were like they were cos thats the way they were spoken by people around him:

tor-kyu (torque)
voi-lens
chaist
wi-kut(wicket)
kati-giri(category)
hadrojen
takes (tax)
naat(not)

and the one i remember best is :
"oma gaad !!you are failing!!"

you may wonder how he helped us pass, but the thing was he was aware of this, and took our khi-khi's in good humor.
its not a shortfall, but its just how we are!


PS:On a trip to china, i was so lost with the language, and using calculators.everyone said "no english, no english"

when i was coming back, at the airport, at one of the counters, i was pointing, and gesturing to make the girl understand.
she said "english?"
and i went "no english, no english!!"

I havent heard the last of it from my wife even 3 years after that incident!

[Gooney]

Haha. Very funny and entertaining thread.

A few from my side :

As pointed out, we Assamese cannot for the life of us pronounce sharp (saarp) sounds, and yes 'ch' included. So, you guys eat chicken while we merrily devour siken. I think this has to do with da lay-G lifestyles we lead and da habit of sewing betal nut (rais bee-R and uder intoxicants do not make matters any E-G-R). You see, we cannot roll awar tang. At times we try, but da tang jast doesn't roll.

There are eloquent Assamese speakaars that many of us have encountered during awar impresonabul sildhood who spik flawless Inglis or Hindi. How-a-bhar, da rest obh us are 'like this only' — attar lak of spelling prowes of uder langu-ej. Ebhen awar mastors cannot pronounce uder langu-ejs propaarlee. What to do saar, ebhen a phair amount of Breteesh rool, pre-Indepedence could not make us spik propaarlee.