Holi greetings from a Bhojpuria

This blog was set up in September 2020.There has since been a long hiatus for various reasons. Holi is a good occasion to resume it with greetings to all. You may be wondering, why in English! Before I come to that let me recall what I commented on a fellow blogger’s post long ago. He was fondly reminiscing about the Bhojpuri environment in his home, and this is what I posted:

लेकिन ए महाराज. एगो बात हम नहीं बूझे. आप का जनम हुआ बड़का शहर में. पढ़े अंग्रेज़ी मीडियम स्कूल में, इंजीनियरिंग कइला के बाद फौरेन में काम करते हैं, आ कहते हैं कि भोजपुरिया हैं. आपको बतायें कि भोजपुरिया का होता है?

I was fortunate to have spent my most formative years, i.e. high school in a खांटी Bhojpuri belt. There, the Master Saheb spoke in Hindi, or Bihari/Bhjpuri if you will, but if a student spoke in Hindi (i.e. Khari Boli), all eyes would turn to him. बड़ा अंग्रेजी झाड़ऽ तारऽ हो, का बात बा? One soon realised that speaking ‘Hindi’ was अंग्रेजी झाड़ना. In this milieu, launda was a part of everyday life, and not something which happened only in baraats. For example, it was an open secret that one of the Masterjis kept a launda. The most common gossip in the Bhojpuri belt was who was phanso-ed with whom. Obviously, it was an all-male scene. There were no girls in Bhojpur. Or, there was an unwritten code of honouring women – all hell would break loose if there was any scurrilous comment about a woman. I was quite amused when urban India made a big deal of the Supreme Court’s judgement on Section 377 and ‘coming out of the closet’ in recent years. Bhojpur has been open about its relationships for ages.

लौंडा रखना or लौंडा पालना was something which a मरद did. After all, a मरद cannot be expected to remain tied to the अँचरा (from aanchal, not anchaar) of his मेहरारू. Remember the Bhojpuri film Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)? Guru Dutt just made a small change: He made the other interest of Rahman a woman, rather than a man. India was not ready for that yet.

Someone who was born चिकना was cursed. There was a scene in Aawara (1951) in which the beat constable scolds the street children, Us chhokre Raj (the child Raj Kapoor played by Shashi Kapoor) ko dekho. Wo bhi to gareeb hai. Par wo chhokra to school jata hai. The ruffians retort with a wink and whistle, Havaldar saheb, usko chhokra mat bolo, wo to chhokri hai, chhokri. If they made films like that, no wonder Bombay has been taken over by Bihar.

A चिकना needed a बॉडीगार्ड to survive in the Bhojpuri-land. The relationship between a chikna and his bodyguard was often quite altruistic contrary to the popular imagination. The British took away the Bhojpuri word bodyguard after their victory in the Battle of Buxar in 1764 and adopted it in English. It was used for the bouncers protecting the chikna royal princes. To camouflage its original Bhojpuri connotation, they changed it to ‘Royal Guards’ or ‘Guards’, and created a touristy spectacle “Changing the Guard” at Buckingham Palace and Windsor with a big hullaballoo. Thousands of tourists from all over the world gawk at this ceremony, ignorant about its Bhojpuri connection.

Unaware of this historical background, the producers of the film Bodyguard (2011) made Kareena Kapoor as the protectee of Salman Khan. If it was made in Bhojpuri, her more chikna cousin Ranbeer Kapoor would have been Salman Khan’s charge instead.

Now some phrases in launda folklore. You cannot have a ‘launda dance’ without screams of जीयऽ हो जीयऽ. Its literal meaning is ‘May you live long’, but it is impossible to explain its real meaning to a non-Bhojpuriya. It would become more colourful as जीयऽ हो जीयऽ ए अरवा चाउर. The metaphor ‘arwa chaaur’, i.e. refined rice as opposed to parboiled rice (उसिना चाउर) is quite clear. But another one completely stumped me, and even now I cannot figure out its connection. When the launda shook his ‘bosoms’ to अंखियाँ हो लाले लाल एक नींद सुते द बलमुआ, the crowd would go berserk and scream: ‘जीयऽ हो जीयऽ ए भाटा में के नेउर’. भाटा = भट्ठा = brick kiln. नेउर = नेवला = mongoose. ‘May you live long, O mongoose of the brick-kiln’. Beats me. But in the Bhojpur I lived, everyone knew its meaning.

I started with the hazards of अंग्रेजी झाड़ना. Once two PhD scholars of Delhi University on a field visit to Munger were looking for directions to the Mir Qasim’s fort. One of them told the other, “चलो वहां पुलिस खड़ी है, उससे पूछ लेते हैं”. The traffic cop on overhearing them flew into a rage, “का बोला रे? फिर से बोल तऽ”. The youth were flummoxed. The cop shook them by the collar and thundered, “हम खड़ी और तुम खड़ा? हम दिखायें का कि हम का हैं?”

अब बुझाया कि भोजपुरिया का होता है? बात बतियाते हैं.

I think I have established my Bhojpuria credentials. So why English? In life we gain some, we lose some. With education, job, migration to big cities, English becomes a language of work and written communication. Some cultural references start receding with successive generations. This blog is meant to tickle the memories of such people who have some thread connecting them to their roots, in a language they relate to. The tenor would be tongue-in-cheek and in a mix of English-Bhojpuri-Hindi (Bihari, if you will)

My another target audience is non-Biharis who have to spend their working life in Bihar. The All-India Service officers assigned to Bihar would be spending a large part of their life in the state. They would grasp something from the sights and sounds of the place, this blog hopefully would give them some रस and cultural insights.

During Covid Lockdown, बैठे ठाले I started writing Bhojpuri word of the Day on my family WhatsApp group. Then arose the idea of this blog. A ‘word’ would be the building block of this blog. There would be some miscellaneous stuff. The sources would be my reminiscences and inputs from here and there.

I have been writing a blog on old film music from the 1930s through 60s for over twelve years. That also has a Holi greetings post today of a very different flavour. Let me again welcome you to Bhojpuri Kosh with Holi greetings to all.

Note: ‘Bhojpur’ here does not refer to the eponymous civil district of today, but the larger Bhojpuri belt comprising several districts of Bihar and UP.