{"id":9469,"date":"2021-07-02T13:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/?p=9469"},"modified":"2021-07-02T15:50:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T15:50:28","slug":"who-is-an-indian-aunty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/who-is-an-indian-aunty\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is an Indian Aunty?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lady

Photo by Oliver Li from Pexels<\/p><\/div>\n

The Indian aunty \u091a\u093e\u091a\u0940 is not only your mother’s \u092e\u093e\u0902 or father’s\u092a\u093f\u0924\u093e \u091c\u0940 sisters \u092c\u0939\u0928- she is anyone to whom you want to give an honorific \u0938\u0902\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093f\u0924 title. This could mean, your neighbor \u092a\u0921\u093c\u094b\u0938\u0940 next door, the lunch lady, your friend’s \u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930 mom, etc.<\/p>\n

I held this view growing up until recently would encourage \u092a\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0924\u094d\u0938\u093e\u0939\u093f\u0924 \u0915\u0930\u0928\u093e, my daughter, \u092c\u0947\u091f\u0940 to call those in my network. That is until I read an article<\/a> \u0932\u0947\u0916 describing how this term had transitioned from an honorific title to one of derision.<\/p>\n

Who is an Aunty?<\/h2>\n

In his book \u092a\u0941\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0915, The Complete Study of Aunts, Rupert Christiansen writes that the term ‘auntie’ in the Oxford dictionary \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u0915\u094b\u0936 was used for slightly older African American women who were servants \u0928\u094c\u0915\u0930.<\/p>\n

The Times of India published an article in 1984 detailing how the term was also used in China to describe a maidservant. Senior officials used to have help at home. This seeming inequality went directly against Communism and hence the term \u092a\u093e\u0930\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0937\u093f\u0915 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 effectively hid this fact.<\/p>\n

P.G. Wodehouse, the British author details how awful \u092d\u092f\u0902\u0915\u0930 Aunties can be in his books.<\/p>\n

Intimate Name Calling<\/h2>\n

Auntie is used in India as a term of familiarity and respect \u092a\u0930\u093f\u091a\u093f\u0924 \u0914\u0930 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928.<\/p>\n

The word ‘aunt’ in Hindi is ‘chachi’. This term is given to your dad’s sister. Also, ‘maasi’ is the term given to your mom’s sister. However, many Hindi-speaking natives \u0926\u0947\u0936\u0940 do not know what the English term actually means. They have appropriated this term as a substitute \u0935\u093f\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a when there is no appropriate \u0909\u091a\u093f\u0924 honorific term.<\/p>\n

Socio-linguist expert \u0935\u093f\u0936\u0947\u0937\u091c\u094d\u091e, Probal Gupta, used this term as a metaphor \u0930\u0942\u092a\u0915 for India’s relationship \u0938\u0902\u092c\u0902\u0927 with English, noting that it was not ‘one of us’ but a language to which one must give respect \u0906\u0926\u0930 \u0915\u0930\u0928\u093e.<\/p>\n

Today, not only do the neighborhood \u0905\u0921\u093c\u094b\u0938 – \u092a\u0921\u093c\u094b\u0938 kids use the term but even auto-rickshaw drivers \u0938\u0902\u091a\u093e\u0932\u0915 and your local vegetable seller \u0938\u092c\u094d\u091c\u0940 \u092c\u0947\u091a\u0928\u0947 \u0935\u093e\u0932\u093e will as well.<\/p>\n

People also call the brothel \u0935\u0947\u0936\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0932\u092f madam and the lady who sells illegal \u0935\u0947\u0936\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0932\u092f homemade moonshine ‘Aunty’.<\/p>\n

‘Auntie’ is also an attitude \u0930\u0935\u0948\u092f\u093e. It is fierce, bold, uninhibited. Drag culture uses the term and an aunty could be a gay man or a woman who has no filters.<\/p>\n

Nergis Dalal, a writer for Times of India, observed that the use of the term enabled Hindi speakers to transcend cultural barriers \u092c\u093e\u0927\u093e\u0913\u0902.<\/p>\n

The term ‘Auntie’ is used not only among Indians abroad but also among Fijian<\/a> blacks, Caribean natives, and any other culture that has close ties with India.<\/p>\n

What is in a name?<\/h2>\n

‘Aunty’ meant to honor and respect \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u0914\u0930 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928. That is, until recently when it has taken on a mocking \u092e\u091c\u093e\u0915 and derisive tone.<\/p>\n

Today, it is used to describe a group of women who have nothing better to do than interfere \u0926\u0916\u0932 \u0928\u093e\u092e\u093e in their neighbor’s business. I have been listening to a popular podcast, ‘What would the Aunties say’<\/a>. This podcast tackles restrictive \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092c\u0902\u0927\u0915 norms and cultural behavior that is established and enforced by the ‘Aunties’ of the Indian world. The show’s topics \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092c\u0902\u0927\u0915 range from auntie’s observations on gender inequality \u0932\u093f\u0902\u0917 \u0905\u0938\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0924\u093e to bad karma.\u00a0 Anchal Seda, who is the host of the podcast has also published a book<\/a> by the same title.<\/p>\n

There are two sides to this term. On one side, the term indicates a person who is unafraid \u0905\u092d\u0940\u0924 to say what she really thinks, lending authenticity \u0938\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093e to the character. But on the other side, the receiver of the term may not be altogether thrilled \u0930\u094b\u092e\u093e\u0902\u091a\u093f\u0924 at being addressed as it reveals age, and lack of relevance \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0938\u0902\u0917\u093f\u0915\u0924\u093e when it comes to generation as viewed by the younger set.<\/p>\n

So, we see clearly that this term has gone through subtle transitions \u092c\u0926\u0932\u093e\u0935 in meaning, starting out as a term that has a blurred honorific\/derogatory meaning. Then transitioning to one of honor and finally in today’s culture taking on a nuance of mocking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Lady

The Indian aunty \u091a\u093e\u091a\u0940 is not only your mother’s \u092e\u093e\u0902 or father’s\u092a\u093f\u0924\u093e \u091c\u0940 sisters \u092c\u0939\u0928- she is anyone to whom you want to give an honorific \u0938\u0902\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093f\u0924 title. This could mean, your neighbor \u092a\u0921\u093c\u094b\u0938\u0940 next door, the lunch lady, your friend’s \u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930 mom, etc. I held this view growing up until recently would encourage \u092a\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0924\u094d\u0938\u093e\u0939\u093f\u0924…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":9472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[556332,556329,556327,556330,556331,556328],"class_list":["post-9469","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-anchal-seda","tag-honorific-terms","tag-indian-aunty","tag-names","tag-podcast","tag-titles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9469"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9475,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions\/9475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}