What Junta Uses It's totally impossible to explain what the numerous IIT slangs mean - they were created in the first place to explain things that English couldn't. Here are a few fundas on IIT 'grammar'. The guideline is - avoid using words that have more than five syllables. The IITian doesn't have that long an attention span. Or a vocabulary, for that matter. _________________________________________________________________ * Froot - Anyone who does downright stupid stuff. Also Frooty, Frootiness, Froot level * Stud - A person who rarely/never does frooty things. Also Stud level.Yes, even females are called studs in IIT. * Fundu - Something cool. * Poond - To get ahead of people unethically. * Despo - One of those (moronic) guys who take acads seriously. * Tool - What some despos pretend to do, i.e the exact opposite. * Cash - To do better in an exam than expected (rarely occurs). * Cup - What usually occurs instead. (Named after the 'U' grade, a failing grade). Also Cuppax * Fundas - What one needs to Cash. Also Hifunda, Low funda, fundaless. * Poled - Totally screwed. * Peace - A piece of cake! Also Peaceful. * Cat - Someone who doesn't need to be a despo, and still peacefully cashes. * Cogging - Using on-line help during an exam. * Kult - Food for thought. * Bogs - Venue of thought. The toilet. Abbr for Bathrooms of Graduate Students. * Arbit - Anything an IITian can't understand. Abbr. Arb * Chumma - The ultimate reason for anything done for no reason. * Generally - See Chumma. * Junta - A zoo of IITians. * Hajaar - A cageful of them. * Jive - Reaction to anything that doesn't involve acads. * Deesh - Reaction to anything that involves acads. Also Ditchax(Obs.) * Enthu - Short for Enthusiam. * Argee (R.G) - (Un-explainable in words, contact nearest IITian) From Relative Grading. * Goodal - Resort to something illegal. * Leprous - What all IIT fashion shows/cul./sports performances usually are. Also Leper * Shady - Vague. * Psyche - Fear (The word Fear doesn't exist in IIT's vocabulary, but 'psyche' definitely does.) * Karra - Extreme (used in good and bad senses)eg. karra cash, karra shady. * Thadaal - Something big, really big. * Kutti - The exact opposite. * Treat - The IITian's daily prayer to his richer friends. * Pack - Their usual response. (No.) * Crash - An IITian's favorite pastime. The act of sleeping. * Pondy - An educational substitute for the opposite sex. * Thorns, Gults, Sambars, Digs, Bongs - People from Kerala, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal. * 'n' - Variable used when one is not sure of how many. * Pita - Pain In The A**. Also Pitamah - BIG Pita * R There - A deliberate screw-up of 'Is there'.eg. Grub R There * Futs, Keef, Slysh - For Put, Keep and Slight. * Tooms! - The IITian word for 'Awesome!'. From Too much! * Yengyo - It's Tamil,not Chinese. Usage similar to Tooms. Tamil meaning -Somewhere * 'Saar'ender - A dragged 'Surrender', used when one can't think of a reply. * bumps- A treat given to someone on his Birthday, when the concerned person is lifted in the air and his rear end is subjected to a series of kicks. Bumps are also a standard punishment for anyone who pains people too much with bad jokes/comments. * Convo- The Convocation Hall, where degrees were awarded. * crack- Use of this term by an IITian implies that the person is referring to somebody's ( perhaps his own ) excellent performance/stroke of good fortune. eg. "I cracked the exam". * crib-To crib is to raise objection(s) to something. In IIT cribbing is carried to great lengths by certain people, who are given the title of "cribboos" in recognition of their achievements in this field. * Diro- The Director of the Institute.. the BIG BOSS * app - To app is to quit Des for greener pastures (!) to the west of the atlantic. Every iitian worth his CPI or otherwise can app. Apping is a long drawn process beginning the summer of the penultimate year of your stay on campus (note it's not the third year always; as some of you might extrapolate) and culminating in maybe a schol towards the end of your final year. The steps involved are beyond the scope of this compilation and merits a page on its own. * boss- A word used (1) while talking to someone who's name one doesn't know or (2) while talking to someone who's name one does know. In that context, however, it is of no particular significance, a bit like the human appendix without it's attendant problems. * cack- A short version of the word "cacophony", it signifies the act of verbal communication, viz. talking. To cack is to talk ( academic discussions do not qualify ). A group of people talking is having a "cack session". * fart- This word has many subtle and interesting connotations, depending on the context in which it is being used. In IIT lingo, to fart means to say something patently untrue/wildly exaggerated/impossible. So when someone is farting he is essentially bullshitting big-time. Such people are known as "fartoos". Another usage of this word is: anything that is bad..ie. a fart Prof. ( Professor ), fart grub ( food ), fart movie/song, you name it.. anything which is not fundoo is fart. * freakout- To freak out is to enjoy oneself and have a really good time. A person who is fun to be with is also known as a freakout character. IITians also use this word when they are happy ( for any reason ). * give up- Give up can mean what it is supposed to, or it can have the same meaning as "fart" in the sense of something that's bad/avoidable. eg. "That's a give up movie".It's also used as an expression of defeat, when one realizes that one is facing impossible odds. * Grub- Food, of which there was always a great shortage ( the edible variety that is ). Mess grub was there in plenty, though. The horror stories about it are legends, with each hostel having an anthology of it's own. * Hawa- Hindi word meaning "Air", it is something which every freshie is supposed to know, "hawa" being an acronym for AIR ( his All India Rank in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) . * lech- An activity at which all IITians excel, leching means exactly what the dictionary defines it to be, which is the act of leering at any good-looking female who passes by. * mug- To mug is to study/cram ..usually this activity is undertaken the night before the exam, but some people mug during other ( unseasonal ) times too..such characters are known as muggoos. * night out: As the name implies, a night-out is the act of staying awake the whole night, sometimes due to a cack session, sometimes due to a combination of cack and intoxicants, and sometimes due to exam nbds.. * ok types- Anything that is good or went off well. Basically this word can be used almost any place where a positive feeling/result is involved. * pondy- An "educational" movie, in which all the facts of life are laid bare. * pseud- A derogatory term for anybody or anything that's very heavily westernised or has pretensions to be very sophisticated. * shady- Something or someone which/who is not as it/he should be. e.g. A shady prof, or a shady ( avoidable ) person. It's meaning varies a bit with regard to the context in which it is used. * slog- To work really hard is to slog. Big-time sloggoos literally slog their b***s off. Thankfully for most IITians, the percentage of sloggoos is not too high ( unlike IITM and other pretenders ), just the level required to ensure a steady supply of class notes and assignments, and not so high that everyone becomes a sloggoo due to nbds. * tension- Tension is an inevitable part of life in IIT, with people "taking tensions" over several things and people ( esp. Profs ) "giving tensions" for several things too. "Tense" is also used to refer to anything that is challenging or difficult. e.g. "A tense problem". * zeneraal- A corruption of "general". If you want to call out for someone, use 'Machi' or 'Machchaan'. These terms mean bro-in-law in Tamil, wonder why they're used in IIT. It's common to end sentences with 'da', unless you're talking to a female (which is rare anyhow). And freshmen are called 'freshies'. A scary word if you're in the first year. The words 'tote' (for total), 'basic' and 'scene' are thrown in for emphasis. The IIT junta often also uses the suffixes '-ax' and '-its' with any verb. You can generally putax junta prefixes and chumma use-its, tote jive scene. Not surprisingly, the maximum number of slangs exist for when someone gets badly screwed in an exam. You could fill up the blanks in "I got ______ed!" with atleast ten different slangs, most unprintable. Some old ones - 'Oorshed' - Badly screwed in an exam (What else?) 'Bagoorshed' - Badly Oorshed! Sporting abbreviations: * baddy: Badminton * basky: Basketball * footer: Football * volley: Volleyball Bridge Slang: Even in slang, there is the underworld ... * pottudlam : invitation to play, usually made after breakfast or just before an exam. from Tamil for "let's drop" ?! * casino : a room in every hostel where such activities go on endlessly. * laysa : attempting to break the odds at bridge by apriori information (reflection in opponent's or onlooker's specs for eg.) from Tamil "lightly" * dumbug : a weaker player (bridge), usually made dummy. ("dummy bugger") * totskoos : "total squeeze": a complicated bridge maneouver. * aahp : usually accompanied by a flick of the wrist. a particularly fine move or play. ______________________________________________________________________ The Cool Cat! At one point in time, humans were created on Earth. They now rule. After a short while, the race of IITians emerged. Probably as a result of His afterthought(!) The average IITian is by no means average - that's what makes description difficult. Here's an attempt anyway. * The looks - Look for some jeans/shorts. Wear a white T-shirt. Wear bathroom slippers (chappals), the straps being preferably of different colors. Get a barely mobile bicycle. Use pieces of paper for notebooks. And sit in the last available bench. You now look like an IITian. * The 'slang'uage - New visitors to Hostels at IIT Madras are often confused by the language. It's almost like they're in a different country. Slangs usually don't last very long - they keep getting replaced by newer ones. They're real useful if you don't want the outsiders to understand your insults.. Could also be useful if you're stranded in an island of IITians and want to make peace with their leader. Hey, you never know. * The outlooks - At IIT, you will find some extremely intelligent people. Quite a few, actually. Which is probably why the guys here get away with their outlook. They don't care what people think about their looks - and will even give neatly dressed people strange looks. If you're visiting IIT, throw your shoes away - and join the Chappal Culture! On average, junta at IIT has a short-sighted outlook to the future. The day begins near noon, maybe a few classes to catch up on lost sleep, and back for tea. Then there's football or hockey or anything else till dark, then dinner. And after that is the 'cack session' - which involves sitting on the Wing cots and talking about everything and nothing. Later on is the argument about who's going to pay for the coffee at Tarams. Sleep is at 2 AM, usually. The junta takes sports very seriously - and gets a lot more emotional about a game than about their grades. In all, life at IIT is totally casual and great fun! ______________________________________________________________________