The Aunt- So take down my email id- R@xyz.com
Me- blurts stupidly- your name is R? I never knew.
Rather, I should have said truthfully I did not ever think of you beyond "Aunty"
So here goes
How many of you know your Dad's or Mom's aunt's names- beyond Dadi and Nani
Infact I used to call Dad's "door ke rishtey ki" aunt as Peechewaali Dadi as she used to live in the row of houses behind!
How many of you have know what is your neighbour's mom's name- the same person with whom you speak on an almost daily basis
Especially in the South you can extrapolate the Dad's name from an individual's name but the Mom's?
And in the North, where I lived, most women called each other as Mrs Sinha or Mrs Prasad or so on and so forth and most of them did not go beyond that to the first names.
3 comments:
Correct.
I sat down to think of how many people I know by first names in my neighborhood.
But in Indian society, it is also unacceptable to call elders by their first names.
Our part time help has this wonderful system - works for her ...
Kuttey wali Aunty
Peeli phool waali Aunty (that house has a lot of yellow marigold growing)
Koney waali Aunty (The corner house)
etc etc
Interesting thought
Many years ago, while living in Lucknow, the ladies in our neighbourhood referred to each other as So-and-so's Mummy! I did succeed in getting them to used their own names with their contemporaries!
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