Indians thread

[Ben]

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Ravens Fan wrote:

I have to admit that I thought they were talking about food crackers as well.  We use the term firecrackers for any of the small, light with a match, throw ont he ground, make a loud bang items.  And the term fireworks for any thing designed to shoot into the sky (or there are ground based fireworks.)

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Ben wrote:

"Last night I was hanging in a dive, slamming back irons."

I am sure that most Americans can translate that phrase but I am curious how far those expression have spread around the globe.

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The only word I don't understand in Ben's quote it the "irons" part.  It isn't a term I ever used or heard.  All the rest makes perfect sense to me.  Unless it is somehow a reference to Pittsburgh's IC Lite.

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Ding, ding ding ding...

IC lite is close and people will use the term "irons" to refer to them but when used the context of "slamming back irons" the term "irons" means Iron City Beer made by the Pittsburgh Brewing company that was also marketed it under the name "Old Frothingslosh" (see here). A related term was "pumping iron".

 

Ben

Message Edited by Ben on 10-16-2009 12:44 PM

[Vaibhav]

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Ravens Fan wrote:

We use the term firecrackers for any of the small, light with a match, throw ont he ground, make a loud bang items.  And the term fireworks for any thing designed to shoot into the sky (or there are ground based fireworks.)

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So do we. Firecrackers for any small, light with a match, fireworks making a loud/small bangs or sirens or just glittering and making smoke and/or making noise. Into the sky as well as ground based.  

[RavensFan]

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Ben wrote:

Ding, ding ding ding...

IC lite is close and people will use the term "irons" to refer to them but when used the context of "slamming back irons" the term "irons" means Iron City Beer made by the Pittsburgh Brewing company that was also marketed it under the name "Old Frothingslosh" (see here). A related term was "pumping iron".

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I thought I was reaching for that one.  If I hadn't been to Pittsburgh before, I never would have heard of Iron City Beer or IC Lite.  That beer is to Pittsburgh is what Natty Boh is to Baltimore.  I would say the rest of your phrase would be well understood all over the US and probably Canada.  I would be curious to know what other parts of the world would or would not understand it.

[Vaibhav]

Interesting cultural part. Very personal and native to the Americans. No way I could have gotten to brand based phrases (as Ravens Fan mentioned above). Thanks for the share. I like to learn different linguistic and cultural aspects from different communities. 

You know, we also have many such phrases which are because of some product or brand (like you have beer here). For example, there was a "butter" with a brand called Polson (don't know about the spelling because it existed before I started eating butter, but was very famous that it was even used in forming a kind of phrase).

In Indian way of talking, if we are flattering someone or making someone feel good by saying some true/untrue good things (so that we earn good feelings from the person, and that we can take out our work from him 😉 ) is called "buttering someone." Like, making someone feel happy (enriching with "butter" 😉 ) and earn confidence. 

That brand of butter, "polson" was so famous and popular in India (before Amul Butter by Amul Dairy - Asia's largest dairy - came into existence, to beat Polson butter brand), that it was mentioned in recipes and in normal talks also, upto a state that "buttering someone" was spoken as "polsoning someone."  

I don't know why, may be my intuition with the combination of words that you had in your sentence, I in fact thought about "banging beer glasses" but thought it looks silly when you are talking about banging irons. 🙂 

Message Edited by Vaibhav on 10-16-2009 07:15 PM

[F._Schubert]

Well, I arrived in S'pore this morning and I'am writing to you from the heart of Little India. It is really nice to have some background about the upcoming festival. Most people at the moment seem to be waiting full of exitement for the evening. But I havn't seen any crackers yet...

So I wish a 'Happy Deepavali' (that's singaporian) to everyone!

Felix

[Vaibhav]

Great that you're feeling more acquainted of the festivities there.

I am not sure if you can see crackers being fired "freely and widely" outside India. Usually it's something that a city's municiple body does in celebration of some major event. Very few civilians actually do fireworks on streets - in the places I have seen so far. In India, however, at least in my city, it's impossible to pass more than 2 seconds without hearing some noise - a blast or a siren - of some firework somewhere in the nearby area, during the Diwali days. 

And that 'Happy Deepavali' is very Indian. 🙂   

Diwali - the festival of lights. "Deep" is a synonym of lamp in Indian languages. In the image below, you can see a few lamps among candles. It's a photo from an Australian news paper about Diwali 2009. 

[parthabe]

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F. Schubert wrote:

(I live vegetarian in europe).

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So, how is life in Europe in general & Germany in particular for a veggie?

One of my cousins who was there in Stuttgart told me it is pretty tough in Germany & other one who has been presently there for nearly over 3 yrs, told me this info.

[parthabe]

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F. Schubert wrote:

What I still miss is a list of names of some famous south-indian dishes (like Tandoori Roti).

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Hi Felix, this is a typical North Indian food. You ll get many such things called parathas (or paranthas as you ll get to read in Chetan Bhagat's "Five Point Someone" novel), basically stuffed rotis with many different varieties of stuffings.

[parthabe]

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Vaibhav wrote:

Methi has very ancient mentions in the Ayurveda's medicine science. I wrote you earlier, it is good against arthritis. It's bitter, and in winter we also make sweets from methi (can you believe? 😉 )

Just one thing I thought, the coincidence - just prior to your trip, a thread was created from some discussion in Ben's thread. 🙂

Everything happens for a good reason! 

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Having a teaspoonful of Methi with very thin (very much diluted) buttermilk is a good medicine for diarrhoea/dysentry. It should stop completely with 2/3 times with this thing.

I tell this myself in a slightly different way, "All is for good!"

Message Edited by parthabe on 10-19-2009 03:53 AM

[parthabe]

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muks wrote:

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Bullet Fire - 10000 Wala

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That is definetly new. cause last diwali i tried speed 200. Any idea about this bullet thing?

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I dont know what the Bullet stuff exactly means , but am sure that the 10000 Wala is age-old stuff.