India rocks: When the Kiwi captain says Bhen***d

by Avirook Sen The most interesting passage of play in India’s Test win over New Zealand on Monday wasn’t the adventurous partnership between Sehwag and Gambhir that (kind of) set the game up. Nor was it the controlled sixth wicket stand between Dhoni and Kohli that sealed the series. The bit I am talking about lasted less than a minute, and it came at the end of the 17th over of India’s chase. Trent Boult bowled the last ball of that over to Gautam Gambhir, and with a lot of help from the Indian opener, found the edge of the bat. The catch flew to Ross Taylor in the slips. He took it comfortably, and kicked the ball high in the air, All Blacks style. He then turned in the direction of Gambhir and appeared to shout “Bhen…d!” Twice, in a space of a few seconds, unless the camera angles fooled me into believing the same event had occurred more than once. Those raising idiotic questions like whether abuse is acceptable on a cricket field, or boring ones on whether the use of profanity becomes an international captain who could be a role model for children and so on, need to leave this page right now. [caption id=“attachment_443037” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Where did Ross Taylor learn the versatile word? I’m willing to bet he picked it up earlier this year playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL. AP[/caption] If indeed that word came out of his mouth, the New Zealand captain’s use of the evocative North Indian expletive is a sign of the times. A time, when India, the IPL, its money, rules cricket; a time when the expats who come to earn a living here are learning the language, one swear word at a time. This is a tribute to India’s power. For way too long, the cricket ground has been held hostage by the standard ‘f’ word. Batsmen have been told to ‘f off’ when out. When hit, or beaten, they have responded, far too frequently with ‘f you’. Captains’ pep talks could be as brief as ‘f them’. These are bland expressions, and not in tune with the much more colourful nature of modern cricket. The word ‘bhen…d’ is therefore a more than welcome addition to language on the field. In any case, English profanities that reference incest begin with ‘m’ and describe a different relationship. As anyone who has lived in North India even briefly knows, ‘bhen…d’ is a word with a wide range of meanings — each derived from the intent of the user. It could also be any part of speech the speaker wishes it to be. You could use the word to describe a friend, an enemy or a car. You could use it to express surprise, disgust or delight. And it is frequently used as a mark of punctuation. In some ways, ‘bhen…d’ is quite like the old ‘f’ word. Most of you have probably listened to Bhagwaan Rajneesh’s detailed description what ‘f’ can/might mean. Where did Ross Taylor learn the versatile word? I’m willing to bet he picked it up earlier this year playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL. Taylor’s previous IPL teams are the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals. Despite the cosmopolitan nature of the franchises, local culture has a role to play. Young Ross could have picked up ‘khamagani’ in Rajasthan, but its use is limited to respectfully greeting a new batsman (never really required), or starting a conversation with Shilpa Shetty. The Banglaore boys are different. I reliably am told that “aunties and ajjis” have trained these “magoos” to be good and correct. They break only occasionally, when gunpowder is stuffed up their nostrils, as in the celebrated case of Venkatesh Prasad versus Aamir Sohail . But the lot from Bangalore are generally slow learners. Gautam Gambhir, the man at the receiving end on Monday, is very much a ‘b-word’ man himself — he is a Delhi boy and a former Daredevil. He co-stars in an educational youtube video along with Shahid Afridi which tells you how to use the word and its variants to best effect. The thing about the New Zealand captain using the word is different, however: it signals its acceptance outside of the subcontinent. There is absolutely nothing sinister about this. The word is race-neutral—there are bhen…ds everywhere in the world. Incidentally, Taylor is a Pacific Islander, he traces his ancestry to the non-European part of New Zealand’s population. (His full name is ‘Luteru Ross Poutua Lote Taylor’) I bring this up because cricket fans will remember Harbhajan Singh’s ‘Monkey Trial’ in Australia a few years ago, and the allegations of racism leveled against the off-spinner. Harbhjan’s defence was that he hadn’t uttered the word ‘monkey’ at all (supposedly directed at the Australian cricketer of colour, Andrew Symonds). The Australians, big Matt Hayden mainly, had only heard the first half of the word, it was contended: ‘maaki…’. The ‘b’ word is clean in the sense that it can’t be confused with anything racist. Its use on the cricket field by those who do not speak Hindi/Urdu only suggests the growth of India’s soft power. The New Zealand captain should be applauded for his reaction to Gambhir’s wicket. Around where I now live, you do this by saying ‘Wah! Bhen…d!’