The Bibliophile's Problem

I follow a  writer-artist's blog. He is an American and his name is Grant Snider. One of his posters describe's a bibliophile's problems artistically. I have put it below as a picture.

You can view his posters at his website http://thoughtballoonhelium.blogspot.com/

Why 'Chutiya' Is Not An Expletive.

For Reader's Discretion: The following is an attempt to explain the usage of the beloved, much loved, adored and most commonly  Indian remark Chutiya. If the word sends the yucky feel down your spine, please read the other 61 posts on my blog ;)
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When most of us listen to the Hindi word Chutiya and its two most commonly used derivatives, Chutiyapa and Chutiyagiri, we get a little uncomfortable.

A lot of these people take offense because literally, it means, 'born through the vagina' and the profane 'cunt born'.

Unfortunately the people who take offense don't know that the word may have come into existence from the above explanation, but it does not mean the same thing!

For ex. the exclamation 'Oh  Shit' is not uttered when someone encounters faeces in it's innumerable sizes, shapes, textures, smells and forms! Is it?

Chutiya can be defined as 'a uniquely Indian expletive which is endearing and rather harmless compared to other abuses, classifying the recipient as an idiot, ignoramus or someone behaving stupidly'. (definition sourced from www.urbandictionary.com) 

Chutiya is a word which is often found in the lexicon of many households, which is equally uttered by women. This should not surprise you. These people know that the word is not a verbal abuse, but a term to describe a moron. The usage is similar to the American slang word 'dumbo' to describe a stupid and especially dim-witted person.


We must understand that our Hindi word is very dynamic and usage is prolific. Our word is neither an expletive nor a verbal abuse, it is slang-ish. verbal banter.

We are smart enough to understand the difference between an expletive and a verbal exclamation.

A person will take offense of this friendly world, depending on the context in which it is spoken. Let me exemplify it for you give you a few examples.

Ex. 1: An employee has been asked by his boss to do a simple task, and yet he keeps on failing to complete it, and the boss in frustration says, "Abbe Chutiye", then the recipient will get angry because in this case, the boss is directly commenting on this employee's intelligence and capability, leading to anguish in employee's mind.

Now, see the same word when spoken in a different context .

Ex. 2: A group of friends decide to watch the latest release 'Babloo Can't Dance' and Pappu volunteers to get the tickets, but when he reaches the venue he realises that he has forgotten to bring money to buy the tickets. When Pappu calls one of his friends, he yells at him, "Abbe Pappu, kya chutiya hai be tu! You wait, I''ll come there with the money". In this case the recipient won't get angry and most probably when the friend comes, Pappu himself will have a good laugh at his stupidity.  

In both the cases, the doer acts stupidly. When the word is uttered in a formal setting (Ex. 1) it is interpreted as a verbal abuse; but, in a casual setting (Ex. 2) it is interpreted as a remark highlighting the doer's stupidity, which the doer himself, in all probability, would laugh at.

The most common derivative of Chutiya is Chutiyapa and Chutiyagiri. Both the derivatives mean the stupid action of a stupid person. So Ex.1 could have been, "Kya chutiyagiri kar rahe ho?" and ex. 2 could have been, "Kya chutiyapa kia yaar?"

Why am I trying to write a 'scholarly article' on this word? The word which the society dubs as an expletive but yet the people living in it love to speak? Because words in itself do not have a meaning. One word has different connotations depending on it's usage, context, setting, tonality, etc. We cannot blatantly penalize people for using a word!

The matter here is not of this one word, but words in general. Think about it...


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1) Thanks Mihir for pointing the grammatical errors.
2) This shows that I should not post the first draft or in haste!

Miss Those Days...

Miss Those Days...

When I slept without thoughts
When I woke up with a smile
When I played in the sun
When I ran in the rains
When I loved school
When I hated holidays
When I never knew what worry was
When worry was just a word in the dictionary
When I never fretted what the world would think
When I didn't need to explain my actions
When I lived for 'today'
When tomorrow was the next 'today' I eagerly waited for
When things were simpler
When nobody had an agenda
When pocket money was always enough; always
When sailing boats in the gutter was the best thing in the world
When the word 'sex' meant gender

When going to the park was the 'greatest desire'  

When I wiped the fallen-on-floor candy with shirt and ate it 

When my friends snatched and ate that fallen-of-floor candy 

When friends were real and just cared for candies

When we all just cared for candies.

When We Were Growing Up

When We Wanted To Be Grown Ups

But We Didn't Know That When We'll Grow Up

(We'll) Miss Those Days...

The Social Network Wars - Google Strikes Back?

'MySpace' was the original cool social network before the advent of the 'facebook' age. News Corp had bought MySpace for $ 580 million back in 2005. Yesterday, MySpace was sold for a paltry $ 35 million! Read the report here. 

On 28th June 2011, Google unveiled it's secret project called Google +. It is yet another social network initiative from the Google stable. Prior to this the three failed attempts were Orkut, Wave and Buzz respectively.

Whether Google + would 'kill' facebook or not, only time would tell. Here's a fantastic blogpost which says why facebook should fear Google +. 

On trying Google +, I liked it's much better privacy control options. The concept of circles is fair and fast. Circles are the subgroups of my 'Friends' (Friends being facebook jargon here) which I make. 

What's wonderful is that nobody knows in which circle you have added them! You decide what to share with whom. For example if you want to share your honeymoon pictures with just your family, you choose that and only your family can see that, rest others wont.

But there is one thing that can potentially kill another company. In this linked post you can read that how Skype can potentially lose out. Google is offering free video chat with 10 people simultaneously, FREE OF COST! Skype too offers free video chat but it's revenues are based on the paid services. 

I'm not a software or web developer, but these recent developments in the span of few days and the current information have got me thinking:

1. MySpace was the undisputed champion and was running high on valuation till facebook showed up and slayed it!
2. Google launches it's Google  Plus initiative.
3. MySpace was sold for a fraction of it's acquisition cost by News Corp.
4. Should Microsoft, owner of Skype, be worried? Did the 'Googlers' laughed their a$$e$ when Microsoft paid $ 8.5 billion for Skype? Will Skype's fate be similar to MySpace? 

Do we see a change in the fortunes of the companies mentioned here? Let's wait and watch!