What’s lockdown called in Hindi?

Using English words to make Hindi more comprehensible has made English language that much more versatile.

Uttar Pradesh being the state of my origin, my native language is Hindi. But I won’t deny the fact that all my reading comprises of works in English language. The avalanche of reading material sliding down, from bookshelves and digital platforms, is in the queen’s language. English has also been the language of my work and writings.

Even the conversations at home and outside are mostly in English. I am gradually getting conscious of this fact, which I often define as my weakness, not for the English language but of not being able to more frequently speak, read or write in Hindi.

I keep looking for excuses for this lapse on my part. “Hindi literature has not evolved, even Indians now prefer to write in English,” I tell myself. “Maybe the more literary side of Hindi has remained in books and the language has too many influences of different dialects spoken in India,” I reason.

Whatever it may be, but now I am making a conscious effort to stick to Hindi in my conversations and to increase the quantum of Hindi writings in my everyday reading. As part of this exercise, I was paying attention to the address by the Prime Minister when he spoke on April 14 announcing the extension of the lockdown. Mr. Modi speaks fine Hindi and does not incorporate English words to stress his point. But in these sad times of #Corona he too has had to struggle for words.

This is not to say that he was struggling with his thoughts or couldn’t find appropriate words for it. It’s just that Hindi doesn’t offer a right word for ‘mask’ which we all should wear these days. Now the literal translation of #mask would be mukhota in Hindi but that would imply that we are putting on a face which is not ours. The PMO has still not found the Hindi equivalent of #SocialDistancing. So, though the PM was stressing the need for it to the semi-literate, he had no option but to keep stressing on keeping social distance. If he had to say it in Hindi it would be ‘Samajik doori’ and that would have been so politically incorrect.

Now that the extremely articulate Member of Parliament, #MahuaMoitra too has pointed out that we should stress upon physical distancing and not social distancing, the other option would be sharirk doori. That would open it to a storm of double entendre and memes.

Even that woebegone word ‘lockdown’ has no Hindi equivalent. In English it is used to describe ‘the confining of prisoners in their cells typically after an escape or to regain control during a riot’. Though it fits our description perfectly these days, but try finding a Hindi word for it.

So, I would like to believe that Hindi has not kept up with the times. That’s why even Hindi newspapers and periodicals use English words very liberally. And had the language built up on its strength it would never have got bastardised to that abominable Hinglish.