addressing

Move over, Carla Bruni! We are the new pair of Mademoiselles! Ever since we arrived here I am trying to look sideways, behind to double check if they are addressing me only everytime they address madam! Gate keepers, servants, helpers, milkman, newspaper man, dhobi they all don’t start or end without madam and sir. Infact they stand in so polite posture and humbleness in the eyes that I get scared if I lift my eyelid bit bigger they will fall. As they say it mudum for everything, sometimes yes, no, here you go, please, sorry everything is replaced with mudum, mudum and mudum.

I don’t deny that I have not heard people addressing others as saheb in Ahmedabad but mostly it would be sarcastic friendly joke to known friend!! Whats more if they really like you they will treat you like unruly child with expressions like ‘ey chul be’, ‘topi aagho rhe’, ‘samajya havey bes bes’. And if you are talking to someone really successful and affluent you can always address as ‘Maheshiyaaa, vikramiyaaa, Akki, Aski, bharattaaa...not only there is no sir but we distort their names truncked if big, and, extened it if small, in no particular order as a reward for their success. And it still sound melodius is an art! Bindhasst Gujaratis!!
Sweetest is Kamya’s friends talk to me and address with name followed by auntie and to my immense joy invites me home for joint mother-daughters gatherings (i have yet to attend). My ears are not yet fully tuned for that though. I remember school friends there would just call and say ‘is kamya THUR?’ and if lucky add prickly ‘please’ at the end. I was no name attendant. If you think of it now in this mobile phone age some mothers wont have even that previledge of answering landline calls for permission.