SUB-TITLES
The word ‘uncle’ for a long time remained closeted within the family precincts and was considered a term of affection and respect and some amount of maturity. Father’s brother or mother’s brother were some of the uncles the world knew till the turn of century. Once it stepped out of the family shadow it acquired some sort of promiscuity. Any one, who crosses forty for no mistake of his, earns this sobriquet from the mischievous youngsters.
Today no body wants to be addressed as uncle. It causes a great deal of pain and anguish to the addressee. It breaks his heart. The uncles are not supposed to smile but sport a grim look, visit temples and holy places, read Ramayana and Bhagavad-Gita Gita and walk like zombie on the road without looking here and not partake in any sort of entertainment. If a young girl calls a well-dressed man as uncle, his male ego gets shattered and all his romantic notions disperses into thin air then and there. He knows that the money paid for coloring his hair, for Park Avenue shirt and Levi jeans and the perfume sprayed in one meter radius around him have all gone waste. Uncle has become a weapon in the hands of the youngsters to tease some one elder without being nasty. It is silent killer. The real uncle is forgotten in this confusion.
Another tern that is in vogue is ‘Dadaji’. It is pretty decent title and one gets a right to it only past seventy. It denotes a grand old man with bushy grey eyebrows or with a bald pate with no scope for vegetation, carrying with him a great amount of wisdom and authority and a number of grand children moving around him like satellites.
Unlike uncle Dadaji is a lovable term which the people don’t mind. But Dadaji whose writ does not run in the family or is not heard or consulted is no Dadaji but like paper tiger he is there to adorn the family portrait, nothing else. Now let us examine the word ‘Dadaji’ little more. A mere Dada is not always a respectable character. He could be a hooligan, a crook and a street side bully and a mischief monger who too wields a great deal of authority and is surrounded by a lot of henchmen to do the execution. So Dadaji’s respectability arises out of its suffix ‘Ji’ and that should be kept in the back of the mind and the back of the word.
‘Anna’ is a title foisted upon the south Indians by the northerners frequently. ‘Anna’ means big brother but does not include the big brother attitude. It is term of respect and seniority than anything else. The northerners, however, use it with a touch of sarcasm to show their superiority over the poor southerners. In the west the name carries a certain amount of femininity and shyness and introvert nature and to that extent it may well fit southerners.
‘Bhai’ is another term which when used as an appendage to any name bond a relation which was not there by birth. It is another term for brother, big or small no body knows. It is conventional to call people by names like Ashokbhai, Vijubhai etc. and people don’t mind it. However, there are also times when an anonymous voice over the phone says that he is calling on behalf of ‘Bhai’ and demands money. That ‘Bhai’ is not a part of this world but of the underworld, that is.
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