WORDS

Bombay duck hobson-jobson big cheese minaret - words are cultural signifiers slices of history made up of letters. In Words Farrukh Dhondy reveals a certain landscape of India through a joyful exploration of Indianisms and Indo-British usages including slang choice curse words and colonial coinage. He cites Anglo-Indian dictionaries and Cockney kids Parsi grandmothers and bartenders foul-mouthed neighbours history books and tour guides. Dhondy's musings on etymological evolution bring to light the social moral and often less-than-moral beliefs and behaviours these sayings stem from.Just goes to show - whether it's an earnest chat or gossip we are saying more than we realize.