The Feminine Mustaches

I put in 36 years of service in my Bank before superannuating. Out of that period, I served in my Home State for 8 years and the rest of the period was spent in other States in India. Of those 28 years, 16 sweet and eventful years were spent in Bihar, 7 years in places which later became a part of Jharkhand State which was carved out Bihar.

When I was posted to Patna to open and head my Bank’s Regional Staff Training College there, the first problem that I faced was language. Although I had worked in U P earlier, my knowledge of Hindi was not sufficient. Training Programmes for Officers were conducted in English but Hindi was to be used in Training of Workmen employees. While trying to speak in Hindi, I always fumbled when it came to gender.(In fact, I don't fumble; I stumble and fall flat, face down, with a smashed nose!) Unlike in most other languages, verbs in a sentence in Hindi change according to the gender of the ‘subject’. So I used to receive amusing look when I asked, ”Gadi kab ayega?” (When will the train arrive?) The correct way to say this is “Gadi kab ayegi? That is because gadi is feminine in Hindi. In English, both boy and girl ‘goes’ , but in Hindi, ‘ladka jata hai.’ but ‘ladki jati hai’. When a man wants to go, he says, “main ja raha hun”, but when a woman wants to go, she has to say, “main ja rahi hun.” In many other Indian languages, the gender of the adjective is determined by the gender of the noun that it qualifies but in Hindi both the adjective and the verb change according to the gender of the noun.

What saved me was that in the Training College, Hindi Training Programmes were being conducted by the Bank’s Hindi Officer and other Guest Faculty. As far as possible, I used to attend these Programmes. These Programmes were not for teaching Hindi language as such but for imparting to the employees, a Working Knowledge of Banking in Hindi. So I could not still decipher the intricacies of gender in Hindi. All the nouns in Hindi are of either masculine or feminine gender. If I am not mistaken, there is no neuter gender in Hindi. 

Once I asked the Bank’s Hindi Officer to tell me an easy way to know the gender of a noun. He told me, “You always remember one simple formula. You know another name of Goddess Durga is Shakti. Goddess Durga is female. Shakti means power. Remember that whichever noun denotes power, that word is feminine! Simple.” So ‘gadi’ and ‘police’ are feminine. Adalat (Court) is feminine. And ‘Sajaa’ (punishment) also is feminine for the same reason.

Then I reasoned out why ‘muchhe’ (mustaches) is feminine!!!

(And is that the real reason why the word ‘patni’ (wife) is feminine?:))) .


Ever since, while speaking in Hindi, I try to remind me this lesson.

TAIL PIECE

The shakti test applies as a general rule and is not a universal one. In some places,it is said, "dahi khata hota hai" and in some other places, the same expression is spoken as ‘dahi khati hoti hai’ . So you cannot escape slipping !!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Q. What is the other name of 'woman'?
    A. Shakti

   Q. What is the other name of 'man'?
   A. Sahan Shakti (Endurance).