South Indian Magic Word "SUPER"

Long before I donned the mantle "Superthumby", I have been fascinated by the word Super, and it's application in various social venues in day-to-day South Indian life. A casual observer, walking through the conversational pathways of Madras, would be virtually assaulted by this little word. I was able to garner some special respect for "Super" mainly because people in my family didn't use it as extensively as the average city slicker did. It took me years to comprehend the vast application capabilities of this simple word. The people of Madras fought hard at making the language as oligosynthetic as possible, so that, whichever way people spoke, with whatever facial deformities they have, the meaning would be the same. They systematically did away with the different "L"s and "N"s in spoken tamil, and adopted a uniform tip-of-the-tongue speech pattern. For instance, "Yenna" with the tongue rolled meant oil, and "Yenna" with the tip of the tongue meant "What". We adopted the tip-of-the-tongue approach to everything. For instance Kobal eating idli at a roadside Idli-sudara-paattee kadai would say, "Dhaaa Persu, Yenna oothu." which in the strictest sense would mean "Hey Big What Pour", but the old lady would understand the real request and would pour more re-used oil on Kobal's idli. With the doing away of "zh" and adopting a "l" (example, Vaalapalam) the language became perfect. Even news readers have started to adopt this free flowing dialect. A section of the South Indians hated hindi, but English was passe and hence no one really minded it's usage. and we adopted a lot of English words. "Super" was one such word that gradually replaced half of the lexicon in Madras.

I have outlined the various practical uses of the word, in Madras today. Innocent travellers can be greatly benefited.

1) Muthu: "Dai. Yeppadi da irukka?"
Sudar: "Super"

2) Sutti Payyan: "Thatha, indha Pink shirt yeppadi irukku?"
Thatha: "Super appu".

3) Politician Kaava Kannayiram: "Engils naama podara terecot pant, aana damil silent aa ulla irundhukinu nambala anechu pudikkara jetti maathiri. Soda please."
Fan club president Guna: "Super aa sonneenga thala."

4) Super aa 6D putchu Thiruvanmiyur poyittu, angaendhu super aa lift kaettukinu VGP ponaa, super-super aa rides la polaamba.

5) Yow! Superfast train vardhu ba. Yaerikka.

6) Call center Kadhir's relative: "Machaan, Yen sagala party super weight."

7) Aanestraj to friend, "Maegala karuppa irundhaalum super structure."

8) Traffic cop to Pulsar Badhbanabun, "Inna? Super fast aa varai? Ultimate star Ajith Kumar nu nenappa?"

9) Super-o-super

10) Goindan: "Manja bag edukka bedroom kulla ponaenaa, Kaandhimadhi verum paavaada kattikinu ninnuchi. Super-shock aayitchu ma yenakku."
Jealous Jumboo: "Dai Naayi. Super macham da unakku."

11) Adho poguthu paaru Elichabuthu. Adhaanda engils la paesi super aa correct pannittu varaen paaru.

12) Bachelor Paranthaaman, "Unakku yenna da! Super aa unakku oru akka ponnu irukka. Avala kattindu super a iruppa."


The list goes on, but my patience doesn't.

Over and out.