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The Wonders of IT English in Bangalore, India

The Wonders of IT English in Bangalore, Indiachillibreeze writerPriyadarshini

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Heard of IT shayaris? Did some one just say ''ping me (contact me) when you are done?'' Or how the ''lappy '' (laptop) has replaced the puppy as your constant companion? Well, burn it in your brain and welcome to Bangalore.

India's IT city has developed a lingo of its own in the last few years, an English that is almost entirely made up of IT words. Be it complaints about ''multi-tasking'' or a ''ctrl+alt+del'' to signify a
divorce, the average Bangalorean has taken to IT lingo without turning a hair.

If a person cannot do something at a certain time because of overwork, it is because he does not have enough ''cycles'' and the most common excuse is ''I don't have the bandwidth to do it.'' And how about uploading yourself onto the lift and downloading on your floor to sleep?

There are many examples of words that once were common in the technical world but now are frequently used in everyday speak. The symbol "K" for instance is often used informally to mean a multiple of thousand, which is why today many refer to their salary in terms of K, eg. 25K. Similarly, snail mail is used to connote regular mail (previously referred to as post) as opposed to the e-mail or electronic mail.

Language watchers point out that there is a tendency, in general, in Bangalore to absorb tech-jargon into common language, be it the ''funda'' of the IIT graduates or pharma terms like 'amalgamate.'' But no study has actually been done by any major language institute on the subject of the IT lingo yet, though several studies have been conducted on how the SMS language denotes the lowest common denominator of spellings.

What makes it really strange is that you can't really identify the IT geek from the common man in Bangalore through their language. If the girl in the clothing shop calls her friend on the mobile to ask for ''specs'' – she means what color and what size dress do you want – she very often is not from the IT industry!

Things, however, get a bit complicated when computing things mean actually the exact opposite of what they are supposed to in regular English. Take the word transparency – it means see through in English. But in computing terms, transparency means only that particular server through which it is routed can understand it and its opaque to all others! So the joke is – if a software engineer says he's being transparent, he could just mean only some people can understand it!.

So remember, when you visit Bangalore, ''googling'' means searching, ''dump'' means updating someone on something they missed, while ''coordinates?'' means where are you. And you would do better to keep your friends and relatives ''in the loop'' or ''route'' information through them and if you want to say something off the record, well, ''take it offline,'' please!

What has really made the IT lingo more unique than others like SMS or pharma lingo is: it lends itself to everything, be it poetry or jokes. Sample this:
"Why are Shiva and Parvati computer illiterate?
Because the mouse is with Ganesh!''

As for poetry, there is everything from blog poems to shayaris. Sample this anonymous blog poem floating around cyber space on how the IT lingo has changed perceptions:

“An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano!
Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3 1/2 inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out!
Compress was something you did to garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for awhile!
Log on was adding wood to a fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode!
Cut - you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu!
I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens, they wish they were dead!”

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, got this series of anonymous shayaris, adding to the IT lingo fun:

Arz kiya hai....

Kal jab mile thhe
to dil mein hua ek sound
Aur aaj mile to kehte hain
your file not found!
--------------------------------------
Jo muddat se hota aaya hai,
woh repeat kar doonga..
Tu naa mili to apni zindagi
ctrl+alt+delete kar doonga..
--------------------------------------
Shayad mere pyar ko
taste karna bhool gaye..
Dil sey aisa cut kiya
ke paste karna bhool gaye..
--------------------------------------
Laakhon honge nigaah mein
kabhi mujhe bhi pick karo..
Mere pyaar ke icon pe
kabhi to double-click karo..
--------------------------------------
Roz subha hum karte hain
pyar se unhe good morning.
Woh aise ghoor ke dekte hain
jaise 0 errors aur 5 warning.
--------------------------------------
Aisa bhi nahin hai ke
she don't like my face
Par uske dil ke storage mein
no more disk space
--------------------------------------
Ghar se jab tum nikale
pehen ke reshmi gown
Jaane kitne dilon ka
ho gaya server down
--------------------------------------
Jabse meri zindagi mein,
aayi hai ik female
Bhool gaya hai sab kuchh
kya mailbox, kya e-mail
--------------------------------------
Dil se ek ishq ki
application create kar raha hoon
Pyaar se debug karna
mein wait kar raha hoon
--------------------------------------
Tumhaare intezaar mein
neend aayee so gaya
Yeh dekho mera connection
time out ho gaya.
--------------------------------------
Nazar mein to kai hain
aur shaayad lonely hain..
Problem yehi hai ki voh
ab read only hain.

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article... Rating 3

 

—About our writer:

Priyadarshini writes for chillibreeze.

 

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