‘No, no. My mother tells me that I had this thing (traits) even when I was in her stomach’, she told the anchor with a glint in her eyes.
These words came from a well-known Bollywood actress during a television chat show in which she was answering questions on a wide range of subjects.
I was engrossed in a book and was not watching the programme. But I was overhearing the conversation perforce because the TV was on. I was jolted out of my wits when I heard the words, “I had this thing when I was in my mother’s stomach”.
It was obvious that by “this thing” she meant some of her traits. But her being in her mother’s “stomach” simply stumped me. “Stomach!” I repeated the word 3-4 times to convince myself that I had heard her correctly. Yes, I was right. She did say, “When I was in my mother’s stomach”.
Ever since the human evolution, foetus has grown and stayed in the place designated for the purpose — the womb. How come that this noble lady from the cine world stayed in a different setting where no other being on earth is known to have spent the initial period of life?
She repeated it at least once as if to underscore her assertion. I could not stomach the suggestion, but that gave me some food for thought. Stomach is the place which keeps churning the food and pushing it forward for assimilation by the body. How did she stray into that unlikely area?
As it is, all the vital organs are securely located and inter-connected in the torso — heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, gall bladder etc. Howsoever hyperactive the actress might have been at that early stage of her life, it was just not possible to jump the fence and enter the neighbourhood.
Were it possible, she would have set a dangerous precedent and given anxious moments to the gynaecologist in locating the missing being. Of course, she would have found it and exclaimed: “Oh, so you are hiding here, in this corner — naughty baby”.
What led me to this wild imagination was the actor using the word “stomach” which is called “pait” in Hindi. However, colloquially, the entire abdominal area is called “pait” (pronounced like “eight”).
Perhaps, the cine star did not want to use the word womb on the screen out of modesty and chose “pait” instead. So, when translated to “stomach”, it changed the connotation and made it sound ridiculous.
This was one instance of people who do the thinking in their native language, but out in the society, they like to use some alien language to impress the audience.
This reminds me of an episode in which Mr G, my elderly neighbour, who is more comfortable with Hindi, chose to talk to a lady in English and created a hilarious situation. He was in a group of 3-4 persons whiling away time on the lawns of our housing complex.
Mrs S, a lady resident, carrying her 18-month-old child, happened to pass by. She paused to wish us all “good evening”. The exchange of pleasantries over, Mr G told the young mother: “You have a lovely daughter.” Mrs S was foxed.
What followed was as follows.
Hesitatingly, Mrs S told Mr G: “Uncle, it is a boy, not a girl.”
Mr G: “I always thought she is a girl because you give her a girlish hairstyle.”
Mrs S: “I was doing that to keep his long hair away from his eyes.”
Mr G: “Oh, so now I know that SHE IS A BOY.”
Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.
