Metro to display ‘pucca’ language

The stations of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd. (HMR) will soon have primers for the uninitiated into the unique linguistic idiosyncrasies that make up the ‘Hyderabadi’ tongue.

With a large number of migrants from other parts of Telangana, the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh as well as rest of the country making Hyderabad their home, the HMRL has resovled it is high time that newcomers to the city, in any case those who use Metro Rail services, should enjoy a bit of cultural induction with an introduction to Hyderabadi lingo. While Hyderabadis of long standing are no strangers to conversations peppered with words like ‘kaiku, hau, nakko’, not to mention pluralised words such as ‘busaan (buses), schoolan (schools), collegaan (colleges), HMRL on Sunday said that newcomers could use a bit of help in familiarising themselves to words and phrases which might otherwise stump them.

“We will create ‘Pucca Hyderabadi’ walls at all stations, with words and phrases that are unique to our city. We hope this will not only be an introduction to the city’s lingo but also be an exercise in sharing information about our culture and ethos,” N.V.S. Reddy, managing director, HMRL, said.

These walls would not just have words and phrases but also their meaning and contexts they are typically used in.

“When engineers design and build stations, they view them purely as engineering structures created to serve a set of pre-designated purposes. Our endeavour is to convert our stations from merely serving as a get-in, get-out areas for metro trains but into places for celebration of urban life,” Mr Reddy said. “We want our stations to be places to celebrate life,” he said.

He said that HMRL was inviting suggestions for the ‘Pucca Hyderabadi’ walls on the email id cprohmrl@gmail.com.