The film around which this post is framed is called "Jab We Met" (When we met). In it, two people meet on a train: a wealthy young man whose life has fallen apart (his mother cheated on his father, and his girlfriend left him for someone else), and a young Punjabi woman planning to elope with a Sikh man. At one of the stops, the two end up missing the train, and take the journey to the woman's home together, as the journey would be dangerous for a woman alone--especially one who left all of her belongings on the train. She faced a great deal of harassment from a group of men when she missed the train, as it was late at night at an empty station. The group of men and others that the woman encountered told her that "a woman alone is like an open treasure box," making her uncomfortable and leading to the companionship of the two main characters.
While the plot was typical of other Bollywood movies in its far-fetched nature, there was some useful travel vocabulary used in it. One song was about walking and taking different paths, which provided useful words like चलना (to walk), चलने (paths), and चलने का तरीका (walkways). Other useful phrases included कार रोक (stop the car), सामान (luggage), and चोर (thief). Interestingly, when the pair wanted to book a hotel room, they spoke in Hindi but used the word रुम instead of कमरा. This shows that English is gradually finding its way into travel words in addition to technology words.
Other useful information was that train tickets must be bought ahead of time, and cannot be purchased on the train without a really good excuse. Also, travelling alone as a woman seems to be, sadly, a dangerous and frowned-upon practice.
Comments