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Hinglish (n): A combination of Hindi (and other Indian languages) and English generally spoken by people who live in urban India. Interestingly, although there are very few self-proclaimed Hinglish speakers, it is a language that is evolving faster than more widely recognized dialects. Observers of this evolution are frequently amused, irritated or upset by the resultant expressions. We, part of a fast-dwindling minority of Indian, first-language English speakers, share our reflections here.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

C is for Capturing and Clicking with Cameras

Cameras are tricky things to use in spoken Hinglish, mostly because in most contexts literal translation is sure to let you down.

"I'll click your picture!" is an overused sentence! What exactly does it mean to click a picture? Is it like clicking a mouse? Is it like pressing a button? Oh wait, it is exactly like pressing a button..on a camera, which then makes a click sound and voila, your picture has been clicked.

Click is a versatile word. It can be used in a declarative sentence, "I'll click your picture!" It can also  be used in an interrogative sentence, "Shall I click your picture?" or as an imperative sentence, "Get your picture clicked!" The last mentioned is usually (but not always) in the context of getting a studio portait of oneself for matrimonial purposes (this will be the subject of a whole other post!).


However, I guess being clicked is better than being captured so it is fortunate that the former is used more frequently than the latter.

When the word capture is used, it is generally not accompanied by any mention of a picture. The sentence may be, "She was captured in a sari." This can lead to some understandable confusion on the part of the uninformed listener because it does sound remarkably like an Indian damsel in distress was captured by some dastardly dude! Alternatively, you may be told that, "She was happy to capture him while he was sleeping." This makes it sound like some sadistic kidnapper took advantage of some poor man's exhaustion.

 A word of caution, when someone says that they want to click a picture or capture you, don't worry. All that will happen is that they will point a camera at you and shoot! The quickest way to ensure the end of the clicking and capturing is to grin and bear it. Sooner or later the activity of taking a picture, if not the use of the words, will end.



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