One of the more entertaining aspects of my nightly ritual is my Indian team’s use of English. Of course, after 5 years of phone and IM conversations, I am pretty comfortable with some of their more loosely translated phrases, to the point that I sometimes find myself asking my wife to “kindly do the needful.”

Depending on the context, she can find this funny (usually…ummm, nope).

Manish Vij posts an extensive list of these bastardized English phrases, which he calls Bombayisms. Here are a few of the ones I’m familiar with (okay, I’ve never heard anyone use “rape for a year”)

beat yourself (beat yourself up)
issues (children)
kindly (please)
land up (arrive)
passed out (graduated)
rape for a year (to date, promise to marry and dump)
bang behind (directly behind)
blow (blow up)
cent per cent (a hundred percent)
ironical (ironic)
do the needful (do what’s needed)
see the full list

The Duke of York is okay with outsourcing.   Finally, the approval I have been waiting for!  Somebody get me a phone, it’s time to find myself a team in India.

“I will be going back to the United Kingdom with a message that people should not be afraid of outsourcing; they should embrace it,” says Britain’s Prince Andrew, who is visiting Chennai for the first time.

Read the full story (via the Hindu)

An old clip, but still funny.  However, the episode would have been more timely if it showed Indians outsourcing their work to Springfield…I know Mr. Burns would be game.
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We usually like to stick to outsourcing fluff on this blog, but once in a while we’ll report on real news as well. You know, stuff about India that actually makes the US media (besides nuclear weapons).

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are going to adopt an Indian baby. You know what? I can put aside sarcastic hang-ups and live with that. Maybe even respect it.

Besides, they’ve already scored a Cambodian and an Ethiopian…this addition should round out the Benetton commercial nicely. Put ‘em in some brightly colored polo shirts and snap away some smiley pictures.
But, then I have to go and read this:

According to the source, whether they end up choosing a boy or a girl, “they’d like to name the child India to honour its homeland”.

India? India? You can’t even pick a state or something? Call it Tamil-Nadu, that has some hyphenated appeal! Or name the precious little thing Punjab…she’ll have a similarly named playmate. Maybe make the paparazzi check their spelling a few times and call the baby Thiruvananthapuram. But, India? If you really want to honor our homeland, name it this, this, or maybe even this.

Come on, Angelina. I know you haven’t been feeling too well, but you used to wear a vial of your husband’s blood around your neck. That was creepy, but definitely creative. What happened?

On the same subject, Manish Vij has a great Rushdie citation over at his blog.