Words of Interest

COOKING & FOOD

• Barfi: diamond-shaped sweet dessert, sometimes decorated with an ultra thin layer of silver foil on the top
• Bhang:  intoxicant, sometimes mixed with milk for consumption
• Brinjal: eggplant
• Bhajia: vegetable fritters (similar to pakoras)
• Chaat: Indian fast food, spicy snacks
• Chameli: jasmine
• Chapati: thin unleavened flatbread
• Ghee: clarified butter, used as a cooking medium
• Golgappa: popular snack item, brought from street vendors – a kind of chaat
• Gulab Jamun: dessert of fried cheese balls in golden syrup
• Gur: soft, unrefined sugar
• Halwai: one of many names for a caste of sweet-makers
• Jackfruit: large, heavy, intensely sweet tropical fruit
• Kadai: a round cooking vessel
• Kulfi: ice cream made with boiled milk
• Laddoo: round, yellow walnut-sized confection, often used as a ceremonial dessert
• Masala: a traditional spice mixture
• Paan: a “chew” of spices and seeds often wrapped in betel leaf
• Pakoras: deep-fried fritters made with vegetables
• Paneer: homemade Indian cheese
• Papdi: popular North Indian sweet
• Paratha: a flatbread, often stuffed with vegetables
• Peda: a milk-and-sugar sweet, usually in the form of a yellow disk
• Pista: pistachio
• Pomfret: flat diamond-shaped fish, prized for its texture and taste
• Samosa: deep-fried triangular Indian snack of dough stuffed with spiced vegetables
• Thali: a selection of small dishes of regional foods served on a round metal tray. The tray itself is often called a thali
• Tiffin:   light meals often packed in stacked tin boxes. The boxes themselves are often referred to as tiffin
• Tulsi: often called “holy” basil, which is a mainstay of the Ayurvedic healing system

CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES

• Attar: a perfume oil made by the distillation of flower petals
• Benarisi sari: One of the most expensive types of saris, from Benares
• Burkha: a full-cover robe or dress worn by Muslim women who maintain purda, the screening of women’s bodies from public observation
• Dupatta: a woman’s long scarf, usually worn with a salwar kameez
• Ghungroo: anklet festooned with bells
• Gunghat: veil, often the end of a sari draped over the head
• Kurta: tunic-like man’s shirt
• Salwar kameez: long tunic (kameez) and loose pants (salwar) worn by women of north Indian origin

TITLES & FORMS OF ADDRESS

• Beta: son (also used to address boys who are not necessarily one’s own child)
• Beti: daughter (also used to address girls who are not necessarily one’s own child)
• Dhobi: person who washes clothes
• Fakir: holy man
• Ganga: female servant who performs domestic chores for several households
• Jamandarni: sweeper, cleaner of toilets
• Jee or Ji: suffix added to a name to show respect, sometimes used by itself
• Mem: a white memsahib
• Memsahib: a form of address used for higher-ranking or higher-class women; also, a general reference to such a woman
• Mullah: Muslim religious man
• Namaste: greeting performed with folded hands, literally means “I bow to you”
• Sadhu: Hindu holy man
• Sahib: a form of address used for higher-ranking or higher-class men; also, a general reference to such a man
• Salaam: formal salutation
• Shrimati: wife
• Yogi: one who practices prolonged yoga or asceticism to gain control over the body and mind

GODS, MYTHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

• Amavas:  a day with a moonless night, considered inauspicious by many
• Ambika: goddess of mangoes, one of Lakshmi’s forms
• Ananta:  “the endless one”, the snake on whose coils Vishnu rests and goes to sleep as the universe comes to an end
• Arjun: one of the Pandava brothers, a key figure in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita
• Avatar: an incarnation of a god or goddess
• Bhagavad-Gita: one of the holiest Hindu texts, here Krishna, disguised as a charioteer, explains the goals of human existence to Arjun
• Bhajan: Hindu devotional song
• Brahma: part of the primary Hindu trinity of gods, the creator, who breathes out the universe to make it come into existence
• Brahmin: highest (priestly) caste
• Dharma: sacred duty
• Divali: Hindu festival of lights celebrated with fireworks; the start of the Hindu new year, and the night of the goddess Lakshmi descends to earth
• Ganesh: elephant god
• Garuda:  gold-colored mythical eagle who carries Vishnu and Lakshmi to Vaikuntha, their heaven in the sky
• Hanuman: monkey god
• Indra: god of the heavens, comparable to Zeus
• Kalki: Vishnu’s final incarnation, and also the name for the white horse he will ride when he descends to earth to eradicate evil and end the current cycle of existence
• Kaliyuga:  the current age we live in, which is the last of the four eras of this universe; this is the age when goodness disappears from the world and the universe is slowly inhaled back into Brahma’s nostrils
• Karma: actions and deeds that will lead to consequences in this or future lifetimes
• Krishna:  One of the most revered of Hindu Deities, celebrated both for his mischievous love of life and his divine power and wisdom; also an incarnation of Vishnu
• Lakshimi: goddess of fortune, consort of Vishnu, who accompanies him from incarnation to incarnation in her many forms

• Maharaja:  provincial king; also the cartoon mascot of Air India
• Matsya:  Vishnu’s first incarnation, a fish that instructed Manu to save humanity by building a ship; Matsya  towed the ship to safety when the deluge came
• Maya:  the illusion that characterizes all transitory existence in Hindu philosophy, with only the spirit being permanent
• Namaz:  prayer performed by Muslims five times each day
• Nazar:  curse or spell, evil eye
• Om:   sacred syllable used in meditation, which combines the spiritual energy of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva
• Radha:  incarnation of Lakshmi, Krishna’s beloved milkmaid
• Rama: an incarnation of Vishnu
• Rukhmini:  incarnation of Lakshmi as Krishna’s wife
• Saraswati: goddess of the arts, consort of Brahma
• Shiva:  part of the primary Hindu trinity of gods, the destroyer.  Unlike Vishnu, Shiva (being an ascetic) prefers to distance himself from the world
• Trinity:  Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.  These are not separate gods but three faces of the same god, which is why the Hindu trinity is call the “Trimurti” (three forms)
• Varuna:  god of the ocean
• Vishnu: part of the primary Hindu trinity of gods, the preserver or caretaker of the universe, who must balance everything that exists, and whose constant action keeps everything running; worshipped in many forms all over India, especially as Rama and Krishna

FESTIVALS & HOLIDAYS

• Bakr-Eid: Muslim festival with a goat being traditionally sacrificed
• Divali: Hindu festival of lights celebrated with fireworks; the start of the Hindu new year, and the night the goddess Lakshmi descends to earth
• Holi: Hindu festival during which people are playfully doused with brightly colored powders
• Mela: a gathering, a fair  
• Muharram: Muslim holy day to commemorate the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain in the battle of Karbala
• Ramzan: The Muslim fasting month (Ramadan)
• Roza: daily fast during Ramzan

MISCELLANEOUS

• Ambassador: the first car to be manufactured in India , the iconic Indian automobile
• Bandar:  monkey
• Beedi: also bidi, a hand-rolled, flavored, inexpensive cigarette
• Charpoy:  cot made of woven rope
• Dacoit:  bandit or robber
• Ghat:  steps leading down to a river, also the bank of a river used for trading, bathing and cremation
• Irani Hotels:  old-fashioned tea shops started by Iranis who immigrated to Bombay in the 1920’s and 1930’s
• Jambul:  tree with small purple fruit
• Lathi: a traditional form of armed martial art, also refers to the long piece of bamboo that is used as a weapon.
• Loban:  a type of aromatic resinous wood
• Mandap:  wedding platform
• Paisa: coin, one-hundredth the value of a rupee
• Pataka:  firecracker
• Phuljadi:  sparkler
• Rupee:  primary unit of Indian currency
• Tamasha:  a traditional bawdy folk play, a fuss, spectacle
• Walla:  suffix meaning “one associated with”, as in the paanwalla (one who sells paan) or radiowalla (the one with the radio)