The essence of India that differentiates it from the rest of the countries is its mantra of enjoying ‘Unity in Diversity’. Apart from being multi-cultural, Indians also enjoy their linguistic diversity. But sometimes this can trigger debates as different words can mean different things in another language. And this is what happened in this hilarious twitter thread.
A Twitter user who goes by the name @sruthijith used the Malayalam word ‘Kutti’ to describe the woman in a picture.
That kutti is looking depressed looking at Onam sadya. How’s it a good pic?
— SK (@sruthijith) September 18, 2019
For the record, ‘Kutti’ in Malayalam means ‘girl’. But since the word has a different meaning in multiple languages (Kutti in Tamil means ‘small’ and in Punjabi means ‘bitch’), some people took offence to his commentary and slammed him for his unintentional, harmless language gaffe.
“What made you call a girl (probably unknown to you) “kutti”? That is all you had in defence of a non-living thing like a phone?” said a Twitter user.
What made you call a girl (probably unknown to you) “kutti”? That is all you had in defence of a non living thing like a phone?
— the last straw 🕛 (@kakolibiswas) September 18, 2019
Luckily, the woman in the pic stepped in to his rescue and cleared the air about the word ‘Kutty’.
kutti means girl in malayalam and kutti means small in Tamil. This is why we should never have one common language. Thanx bye. FYI. The 'kutti' in the pic is me.
— Theja Ram (@thejaram92) September 18, 2019
Here on, the thread spiralled out of control, giving us some serious entertainment:
Why saying 'kutti' in Malayalam can get you in trouble on Twitter 😂. @sruthijith pic.twitter.com/zSyJIrmTiC
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) September 18, 2019
Penkutti means girl, Aankutty means boy in Malayalam.
— Koshy George (@KoshyG) September 18, 2019
A phrase that always had me in tears was "Tu gaandi che." It means "you are mad" and is used endearingly in Gujarati. In Konkani gaandi means the butt and I would get so furious that my maternal grandparents were calling me "butt"
— TheTzarina (@return_to_hades) September 18, 2019
Both Kutta and Kutti are dangerous words to use in North India.
Always handle with care 😂
— Advaid അദ്വൈത് 🌹 (@Advaidism) September 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/cricketsnob/status/1174564543650906113
One Kutti issue has blown up!!!
— Vignesh (@vmvignesh) September 18, 2019
This also resulted in people debating whether India needed Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s ‘One Nation, One language’ policy.
@Vinay_Shenvi One Nation,One Language, Many Problems
— imsagarsawant 🌊 (@ImSagarSawant) September 18, 2019
Haha… this theory of one language is bakwaas in the first place….
— Vinay Shenvi (@Vinay_Shenvi) September 18, 2019
Reason why people should get proficient in multiple languages but be careful in using multi lingo while conversing
— Sridhar🇮🇳🇮🇳🛐 (@sridhar__TN) September 18, 2019
The perils of a common language!😂
— Dusky Tamizhachi (@TamizhRatsaschi) September 18, 2019
Basically "the perils of saying anything on Twitter"
— Rohit TK (@Teekkayy) September 18, 2019
One Nation One Language…."I Want Job"#HindiImposition pic.twitter.com/hoI7r7t2md
— PadmaRani (@KPadmaRan1) September 18, 2019
I'm not in support of one common language. Every language is unique and beautiful in its own way and people should be proud of their mother tongue or their native language. Mine is Urdu.
— Regulus Black (@shxhryxr) September 18, 2019
One jungle, one language! pic.twitter.com/AGLSnZJW2w
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) September 17, 2019
Well, everything has its own drawbacks. What do you think? Would having a uniform language help in such cases or is being multi-lingual the key? Tell us.