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Pinglish: What’s a Missing Letter Between Friends!

Posted on April 12, 2007
Filed Under >Owias Mughal, Humor, Photo of the Day, Pinglish, Society
16 Comments
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Owais Mughal

ek nuktay ne mehram se mujrim kar dia
hum dua likhtay rahay woh daghaa paRhtay rahay

When I first saw it, the phrase ‘Don’t tuch me’ got me laughing for many seconds. I found it written on a Suzuki pick-up while I was passing through Super Market, Liaquatabad, Karachi on the afternoon of December 30, 2006. The painter had almost got it. Just one letter went missing.

As I moved my camera up a little bit on the same Suzuki pick-up I saw the following scene. Aaah. Just one letter missing again. ‘Banaras Khan’ became ‘Banars Khan’.

On a different topic, also note how the back cabin of this Suzuki has been secured using a metal bars and a lock.

16 comments posted

Comment Pages: « 2 [1]

  1. Babar says:
    April 12th, 2007 9:16 pm

    Why Pinglish is so interesting that I see a post about it every other day. I dont think Pinglish is any achievment on our part, specially while we are making urdu into urdish or something and forgetting punjabi altogether.

  2. Sufi says:
    April 12th, 2007 6:20 pm

    It is probably for young school children.

  3. Anwar says:
    April 12th, 2007 5:18 pm

    I am curious to know what exactly this machine is meant for? To carry rabid dogs, a mechanized funeral buggy, a portable safety deposit box or what? Any comments Owais?

  4. Owais Mughal says:
    April 12th, 2007 4:08 pm

    Since ‘Banaras’ is a proper noun so I agree there is probably no correct translation of it from local pronunciation to English. But the sound ‘ras’ sonunds closer to me when written as ‘rAs’ than ‘rs’. It is similar to name ‘Roger’ is not written as ‘Rogr’.
    Also the Indian city of Varanasi was called ‘Banaras’

  5. Pervaiz Munir Alvi says:
    April 12th, 2007 12:41 pm

    Owais: Are you sure it is not suppose to be ‘Banars Khan’ as the sign says. ‘Banaras Khan’ does not make sense to me.

  6. April 12th, 2007 11:01 am

    By the way, Owais, I prefer “TUCH ME NAT” to “DONT TUCH ME” :-)

  7. April 12th, 2007 10:59 am

    I do not think that desi’s make English ’stupid’ at all. We make it our own. Despite all the mistakes and all most ‘desis’ speak better English than most English speakers speak Urdu ;-)

    As we have said in a number of posts in this series, Pinglish is about ‘Pakistanizing’ English. So, again, Pinglish is not a case of making fun, but of embracing one more aspect of our Pakistaniat.

  8. April 12th, 2007 10:46 am

    and you though only desis made english stupid, presenting chinglish !!

    see here

Comment Pages: « 2 [1]


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