Picture of the Day: Pinglish? Probably not

Adil Najam

Building on my other post today (‘Trilingual’) and after Sabizak’s message on our first ATP post on Pinglish, I am no longer sure if I am using the term correctly or not. Hence the question mark.

However, this one is somewhat like another earlier ATP post, titled ‘Lost in Translation’. Literally, the translation is not incorrect. However, the addition of the word ‘Room’ at the end makes all the difference.

[By the way, another one I saw in yesterday’s The News was the reporter quoting someone as calling an event a ‘golden evening’; I assume the real word used was ‘sunehri shaam’!]

But let me say that the choice of this photograph as the Picture of the Day is not motivated by the quality of translation. I saw this and wondered what has happened to all the ‘Garam Hamams’ in Pakistan. They were an urban necessity for a long time and some are still around (I remember using them back when I was a University student in Lahore and we had a multiple-day water closure).

In some places, Turkey for example, traditions of public baths are remembered and conserved as part of cultural heritage. The South Asian tradition of public baths – and this ranges right across the subcontinent – seems to have been less well cared for.

This picture was taken in Peshawar in 1996 and is from the personal travel website of Galen R Frysinger, a retired scientist who now spends his time travelling the world and recording his travels at his website.