A Guide to the Street Language of Karachi

#78 Posted by daddu on May 10, 2004 11:55:58 am

Taking karna/ Lae laina: To dis.
L karana (And `L` saying the alphabet.): Give the could shoulder, no-lift type scene.

#77 Posted by alimanzer on April 18, 2004 5:50:17 pm

well you have missed many.
i would like to point to one of the most magnanimous of the words .. `BHARAM``. i have seen the emergence of this term, which is just awesome. you can use it virtually anywhere using an appropriate suffix or prefix, the most commonly used are
`Bharam bazi`: Be it an ostentatious display of your wealth, your physique or PR etc, you do baharam bazi when you tell your friends about your rich relative or when you tell /a lie about your certifications to your interviewer or when you bully someone with any of the above qualities. even now you can call me doing bharam bazi in this link, showing off my knowledge of khi street lingo.

`bharam tight pateela khali: analogous to old urdu idiom:` oonchi dukan peekha pakwan``.

#76 Posted by rashmiekka on April 12, 2004 3:02:29 am

Jharkhand is a new state in India. It`s in the east, surrounded by Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. It was part of Bihar earlier and came into existence on November 15. 2000(I think... )

#75 Posted by reservoirDOG on April 11, 2004 6:12:34 am

rashmiekka:

You know what, it actually really makes sense. Karachi shares more of its language with India than it does with the rest of Pakistan (read: Punjab). We are Muhajirs and brought the Indian language with us. In fact the Punjabis still consider us as Indians and call us ``hindustanis``.

Anyways, there are a few other words phrases whose origins I`d like to know:

bharam chodna: buhat zyada bharam dikhana

choda: difficult to explain....hmmm....means something like being related to someone or tries to be someone he/she`s not (it`s a very crude definition, but that`s the best I could do) Example: if someone tries to do tricks with a basketball (and is not too good at it) you might say ``abay o michael jordan kay choday insaan bun``

chhaNRa / chhaNRi: boyfriend/girlfriend

dimagh ki dahi banana

Lastly, rashmiekka, is Jharkhand a state or a city, and where in India is it?

#74 Posted by rashmiekka on April 10, 2004 3:35:24 pm

reservoirDOG:
Pawwa, Kutna, Katana, Bharam are all used in Jharkhand, India too.
And most of the rest are used here too, but in slightly different contexts.

#73 Posted by reservoirDOG on April 8, 2004 12:43:53 pm

*** This post contains profanity and may be offensive to some people. You`ve been warned.***

An interesting article I must say. Heck, any article on Karachi would do me proud :)

Anyways, having lived in Punjab and Karachi, and being one of the most prolific cussers people have seen, I think I`ll just give my two cents.

Firstly, most things have been incorrectly regarded as Karachi slangs. True they are spoken in Karachi, but so are they everywhere else too. Especially the pharo/phatna/pharna family of words. It`s just short for g@nd phatna and its other variants. Nothing too Karachi-esque about it. In fact most cuss words are spoken all over Pakistan and India so you people need to have a good knowledge before labelling something as Karachispeak. There are regional differences though. There`s this endless religious debate between Punjabis and Karachiites as to is it lun or lund. Both think they are correct, so I just say we put in that extra `d` as a sign of our larger size. :)

Coming back to Karachi lingo, it`s basically originated in Lalokhet/Liaquatabad (I think it`s the same are) and is attributed to lower-class Muhajirs. This may go some way in explaining why there is so much stigma attached to it. But I guess Umar Sharif added more words to Karachi lingo than any other person`s added to any other lingo. But his words have usually been a fad and soon become passé. One words of his that has stuck around:

Pawwa: means `Parchi`/`Jack` (which i am not too sure are Karachi-only word or not). It means to use a ``source`` to get a job.

Ok, now for a few words that haven`t yet been mentioned:

Kutna: Leave (Mujhe bara bajay tuk kutna hai/Yaar woh buhat juldi kut lia/)

Katana(a cousin of Kutna): To not include someone(G@ndu kay bachay, tu nay mujhay party say kata dia)

Bharam: I know, I know, everybody uses it but their usage lacks the versatility that we have.

Pithi pack hona: Be in a bad situation.

LPC: Lund pe chur, meaning things like ``don`t give a fark`` / ``fark off``. Fark in itself is a euphemism for a well-known four letter word (nothing to do with Karachi, but I just thought I would mention).

GPL: G@nd pay laat - self-explanatory

TPL: Tatto pay laat - self-explanatory

Toi/choot/khus/g@nd lugna: The feeling you have after taking an exam :)

Toi/choot/khus marna: same meaning as g@nd marna - I guess a few people were starting to get bored with the rear-door escapade and are now trying to ``maar`` the front hole :)

Party scene: Binging (aaj raat ka party scene on hai)

Many many more............................

Disclaimer: Having spend my time in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad I haven`t heard most of these galis/slangs much outside Karachi, but if anyone of you feels that it`s not the case, do correct me, as I don`t want a non-Karachi word to be labelled Karachispeak.

#72 Posted by Pakfin on March 28, 2004 1:56:28 pm

“Salay”

The most non potent slang which is common place in the street and men have been known to use in the presence of female company. The other meaning of this word is used to address the brother in laws. If it has arisen over the annals of history as contempt for brothers in law, I do not know.

This word has become commonplace, but the original intent was to use it as a profanity. Calling someone Sala or Salay implying that the person had slept with the others sister.

“Tanagay utha Dayna”

This is basically used to connote someone doing something to someone else that ended in them being sorted or the other party to get what they deserve. Again I am confused as to the exact premise of this phrase.

The premise of this phrase comes from its literal meaning of lifting up a persons legs, with the idea being that legs are lifted up to screw the person. The connotation here being that someone is going to get royally screwed.

Bhainjochud: Sister fucker in a sindhi accent. This meaning is slightly off the ball as the literal translation is ``your sister`s cunt``

#71 Posted by MastRam2 on March 18, 2004 5:03:55 pm

re #63
Bhaiya jang, tum pehle chowki nikle jise hamare nom de chowk ka source pata hai. Waise to yahan India ke aise angrezidaan aate hain ki koi mastram ke moulik sahitya se parichit nahin hai. Aapki tirsath number mein ishara shayad purvi uttar pradesh ki taraf tha na ki pashchimi. Varanasi mein holi ke purva ek adad kavi ko mahamurkhadhiraj ke samman se bhi sushobhit kiya jaata hai.

#70 Posted by moulabux on March 18, 2004 12:02:12 pm

Very interesting. But being the pappoo (interchangeable with Chikna; it can also be a simpleton) grammarian that you`re, you`ve failed to do justice to this vast subject. These are ones that are generally used in the presence of the gentler sex.

In any case, let me share whatever insights that I can offer:

Ghanta : A polite Fuck Off. Also used as a crude indication of your pee pee.

Gashtor/Gashti : According to the Lugat, an unmarried woman of questionable character, but applicable to all females who don`t conform to the standards set by Mailas.

Ghailchodya: A funny memoni diss, meaning Fucked up in the head. (I guess)

Seal Pack : Virgin

Patakha : Sexually attractive.

Session lagana: Bunch of guys, smoking weed or drinking alcohol, and cracking up on crude jokes.

Scoring : Going to a dealer for buying weed/pot/hash.

Bhainjochud: Sister fucker in a sindhi accent.

Yan to dey: Another sindhi favorite, meaning something like ``i want your arse.``

PhunnoKhan: Phunno refers to dick, khan is the aggressive pathan. Attributed to one who is all talk and no action.

Mamou : The MunnaBhaiMBBS Syndrome. At the match even, there was a KFC banner which said ``Mammoo boley tu``. Call anyone and everyone.

Oh, actually, I`ll stop. I can go on with this forever and ever. How we had gali-galoch competitions from grade 5 to grade 7. How creativity was manifested in an unexpected manner.

Anyone who wants to go down nostalgia lane, is welcome. Heh.

And some shrewed observations were shared by the interactors. #29, I concur.

Oh, and although I had read that multi-purposeness of fuck mail before, I still enjoyed it.

Cheers.

#69 Posted by MNIPhirSay on March 18, 2004 11:16:37 am

Abay yeh baRa bumbaaT artikal market meiN aaya hai (T) ..(do thumbs up ikaans vurk here? ) ...

#68 Posted by dullabhatti on March 18, 2004 11:16:36 am

chalo phir add my favorite: ``bunD thaaniN Lahore disna``
In summer: ajj te ainna taa(heat) lagga ke TaTTay lamak ke bhoN(zameen) nu lagg gaye. somewhat scientifically correct.

#67 Posted by tahmed32 on March 17, 2004 3:48:55 pm

pardaisi #66 If a woman wishes to join in on her own in that is fine. All I was commenting on was your calls to women posters by name to join in. That is going a bit over the line, dont you think?

Anyway, dont let me spoil the fun. Lets hear a few more good ones before this board is history.

#66 Posted by Pardaisi on March 17, 2004 10:23:27 am

#65 by tahmed32

maybe it is not a matter of free time, its a matter of treating all equally. I know the mindset of desi man, we do not (generally speaking, not me) subject our women to the same standard of conversation as we would with guys. It is ok for desi to use profanity among guys but oh no dont you dare do it in front of desi women.....why ? last I checked desi wome wants to walk next to a man, so deal with what we deal with in real world. Why keep it clean, if it offends her dont read! its that simple.

It is ok to post tons of messages on Indo-Pak or religion but not on articles like this? I think it is the hypocrisy of asian men, we think if we use vulgar language with our women it will make her vulgar with others.......

#65 Posted by tahmed32 on March 17, 2004 9:38:02 am

pardaisi #64 you write ``where are frequent (female) interactors.....I wonder why is that ? ``

Aside from the fact that not everybody has as much time to kill as I do (for example)...I think the nature of the discussion here is hardly fit for mixed company anyway (and I am beginning to feel sorry I tossed in a few myself). Lets try to keep it a bit clean, and maybe your wishes will be answered!!

PS: Be glad we dont have Jay here. :-)

#64 Posted by Pardaisi on March 17, 2004 9:15:45 am

#62 by rashmiekka

One can never be sure by user name but taking the name for its face value it looks like most are men. Among 63 interactions so far, you posted twice and once by someone, as you mentioned in your post, that makes women posts for this arcticle less than 2% of total 63.

where are frequent interactors.....Farzana Versey, Sadna, Beena, Saminasha, Sobia, ZahraJ, Rozaiba, and not to forget the goddess.

I wonder why is that ?