Recently I met an old acquaintance and when I went up to her and said, "remember me? we used to meet at our daughters' football practice sessions"? She had a big question mark in her face, "football practice... oh, soccer practice, you mean?" Can I get anymore superbowled!!!
I've always admired people who become Roman as soon as their feet touch Rome! Amongst friends who in just 3 months of landing in foreign shores could talk about cabs & cardigans in ishtyle, here I am, a thirundhadha case, even after a decade, still filling petrol, eating and feeding biscuits instead of cookies/crackers, getting rose/violet colour outfits! Recently, A1 added a new word, comforter, in her vocabulary cos' we still refer to hers as 'blankie'(btw, a diploma course is required to understand bed linens)!
Some words like 'trash', 'elevator', 'bell pepper' didn't seem that hard to get used to. But words like schedule, bath etc. confuses my brain and the outcome will definitely be the Indian way to Americans and vice versa! Same with direct, vitamins etc. And bike, scooter, jeep are quite deeply etched that the substitution is still a WIP. Apartment was easy but when I had to answer which floor, I always wished I lived in the top most as I bungled with all others. Shortened versions are to make life easy. But I kashtapattu, vedhanapattu, thindadi, theruporukki somehow manage to say 'condomonium' in full cos' a couple of times, my mouth(with help from brain or not, I know not) mysteriously adds a 'm' to the end to its short form!!
Recently a desi asked me if & how I pronounced my name Americanized. After reading thro' this post, you might've guessed that like the Doordarshan TV times palmolive shaving advt. dhadiwala(beard) guy, my answer was "who, me?" ;)
