Sunday, January 17, 2010

Parwanagi

"कोई परवानगी नहीं" is what the sign at some shopping complex gate read. I noticed it, and both of us were highly amused at the choice of words the painter - or whatever management is responsible for this - had used. The sign was meant for street hawkers and autowallahs, asking them not to park close to the gate. As far as I know, परवानगी (parwanagi) is NOT a Marathi word. It's Urdu, pure Urdu, for all I know. It's such a beautiful and philosophical word that finding its use in such a location and context would be the last thing you'd expect.

Somebody even made a Wikipedia entry for this word, and that really makes you want to run back over there and take a picture of it (maybe I'll do that later). I had always know of it in the sense of a wanderer, or something reckless and free, and could identify myself to that breed; but "obsessed lover" was something how I never interpreted it as (tx, shruti for having me find that out).
"कोई परवानगी नहीं", written as a stern warning in front of a building, suddenly seems to seed from a malicious, conservative mind.

Now I should get to work on turning this around to how I qualify as an "obsessed lover".
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