Phunney Phellow
By Mr. Idris Hasan
My father once told me an English-Urdu mix narration that was not only interesting but also phunney. It contained some Persian words that I cannot remember now. A lower grade clerk sends a leave application to his British officer stating:
Rain is falling jhim-a-jhim
Leg my pisle gir pade hum;
Is liye tomorrow office cannot come
One day rukhsat chahata hoon.
Not to be outdone, the gora babu sent back the leave application with the remarks:
Rain is falling jhim-a-jhim
Why you pisle why not hum
If you tomorrow donot come
Tumke maarega tomorrow hum.
Today, use of English with local dialects is very common. Tune to any channel and you will find a generous mix of the languages. Sometimes, the hosts seem to be more comfortable in English rather than the channel language.