"Such a Laila you are....."

Indians have contributed so many words, phrases, slang to the English language; sometimes to enrich it and sometimes because we genuinely did not know the English equivalent of a vernacular word. Most of the phrases used in Indian English are not a part of ENGLISH. Yet we use them time and again and the funny part is, people all over the world have began to understand what we mean when we transliterate a vernacular phrase into English with such seamless ease that would shame the purists. "Chutney" is the word that now find mention in the oxford dictionary as accompaniment for "Idly" - which is also an Indian word. Most of these words which are not English have found acceptance because the world loved Indian cuisine and had to use the terms the Indians use, due to lack of relevant words in the English language. Similar explanation can be given about the word "Chaai", now in this case, we have a relevant word Tea, but the way Indians serve their tea is way too different from the way tea is being served world over. Hence the acceptance of the term "Chaai". I could list so many words on similar lines being accepted in the English language.



Now lets move on to the phrases, "Don't eat my head" is a toto Indian-English phrase which is equivalent of "Don't get on my nerve" in English. Yet world over, Indians make use of this phrase and are perfectly understood. Then there are cases where Indians use local equivalence of and English phrase. Like a phrase say, "They are like romeo-Juliet" becomes "They are like laila-majnu". No one knows who the hell Laila is or who Majnu was, but we replace them conveniently with the immortal characters of Shakespeare while depicting endless love. Now, today, I propose to add a new phrase that I assume will gain acceptance sooner than later. When someone is sweet to you or goes out of the way to accommodate you, you tend to say, "You're such a sweet heart". Let me introduce the Indian equivalence which I hope will be accepted world over (fingers crossed).

Phrase: "Such a laila you are" :: equivalent to "you are such a sweet heart", changes observed as Indians don't go by the grammar to frame a sentence but go by the words that explain the feelings behind the words. In this phrase the feeling to be conveyed is the excess of sweetness and hence most Indians will begin it with a 'such'.

Origins: Now all of you might be wondering, "who the hell is laila", well at least most of you :P. To tell you the truth guys, I don't know either. She does not epitomise love or friendship or care. Nor is she part of some eternal couple like Romeo and Juliet. So its absolutely okay if none of us had heard of her or have seen her. Let me describe Laila as I have heard. She is this girl-next-door who goes out of the way to keep the important people in her life happy. She is the one who makes them feel special and wanted. She is a shoulder whom you can count on when you need to cry , she is a ear to you when you want to bitch about anyone and everyone, she is a girl you can count on to stand by you when things are going tough but more than anything else, she is the one who makes you feel that she stands to gain from your friendship with her. In short, she is so much more than a sweetheart.



So the next time you find such a person make sure you say "Such a laila you are". :D

So long.....