Trigger warning: cuss words
I am glad to share with you all that finally in my 22 years old life I managed to pronounce a “gali” recently. I suddenly realised that it was for the first time I got complete acceptance and recognition from my friends as an adult girl .They abandoned the tag of “Dudh piti bacchi” given to me though not wholly but partially . They are of the opinion that gali from my mouth sounds like poems or tunes, though there is full scope for it’s development since once I have managed to spell it out. I was that time in a dual state of mind. Happy enough celebrating my acceptance as a member of the group who will not laugh and say while pronouncing a gali”look she didn’t understand anything” . In contrast, my subconscious mind created a picture my myself pronouncing “O fu*k” , “sala motherch*d” etc in one after another sentence. No the glory of being old was seemed vague within a minute.
Most probably we are that generation who romanticizes gali so seriously. I have seen girls around me who has the opinion that boys who donot give “gali” are actually not boys. Even as a joke flowing on the air the question of their impotency comes. I have seen guys calling their servants,juniors or wife at times of rage or anger only by slangs. The respect of authority and the dignity of power goes away somewhere. I have come across people who cheered a famous comedian whole heartedly when he said that “those who give gali in Hindi are regarded as fools”. We are ultimately at a phase where gali is given and consumed as breakfast , dinner and luch, we have normalised it upto a level that if a university student giving “gali” to a teacher leaves the class, it will be regarded as “jawani ka garam khun” and nothing else.
But have we ever gone to the depth of the meaning of these “gali” s? Whom do these refer to? With my limited knowledge and observance I have realised that these “gali”s are given in the name of the marginalized people of the society. Those whom the powerful ones treat as weak. For example, in the name of women, transgenders and those who are financially or socially weaker. Let us consider some,eg, “motherch*d”, “betich*d”, “behench*d”. Similarly when a boy acts emotionally remarks come as “hijra he kya?” But the irony occurs when even girls use the same galis to express their anger(?) , annoyance (?) or such kind of emotional outburst.
Now the question which arises is , like the hence prevailing social taboos, discrimination, oppression etc ,are the “gali”s too results of age old patriarchy, class and caste discrimination and domination on the basis of these? The answer is deep rooted and complex. But if it is assertive then it comes into light another dark aspect of non separable connection of such social loopholes on us. It gives rise to another question, are we educating ourselves to be successors of those same age old backwardness which prevent us to move forward?