Ghar ka aadmi. A man of the house. The Rekhta dictionary gives “member of one’s family, family friend.” Its Hindi entry extends the meaning to relatives, a personal servant and an acquaintance.
Ghar ki baat. A matter of the house. Rekhta gives in Hindi a secret of the house, a matter between ourselves, a private matter.
Langotiya yaar. A loincloth friend. Rekhta gives “an old friend (from childhood), a very intimate friend, a playmate, a crony, bosom buddies.”
Yeh dosti. This friendship. The song from Sholay (1975) was composed by R.D. Burman, with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and sung by Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. The five-minute song sequence took 21 days to shoot.
“Yeh Dosti” has been called the ultimate friendship anthem, Wikipedia notes. In 2010 it was used “to symbolise India’s friendship with the United States during a visit from President Barack Obama.”
Regular commuters on Mumbai’s local trains travel in groups. “Members take turns to sit, when there is a seat crunch in rush hours,” the Free Press Journal reported. One commuter recalled: “We would cut birthday cake in train, share til laddoos on Sankranti and other snacks.”
Local Samosa describes one such group: “For decades now, a group that has evolved over the years and welcomed new members sings bhajans in the trains.”
Udukkai izhandhavan kaipola aange idukkan kalaivadhaam natpu. This is couplet 788 of the Tirukkural. In one English rendering: “(True) friendship hastens to the rescue of the afflicted (as readily) as the hand of one whose garment is loosened.”
In the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Karna challenges Arjuna at a tournament of the princes. Kripa objects to his birth: “Sons of kings never fight with men of inglorious lineage.” Duryodhana has Karna installed as king of Anga on the spot.
Karna asks: “what shall I give unto thee that may compare with thy gift of a kingdom?” Duryodhana answers: “I eagerly wish for thy friendship.” This is the Ganguli translation.
In the 2021 West Bengal assembly election, the Trinamool Congress launched the slogan Bangla nijer meyekei chai, Bengal wants its own daughter.
The party presented the leaders of the opposition party as “outsiders who are on ‘election tourism’ to the state,” the Deccan Herald reported. “They don’t want some outsiders to take over the reins of Bengal,” a party leader said.
In the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, comes to Rama’s camp to change sides. The monkey king Sugriva wants him killed. “He may be a spy of Ravana the king of demons,” he warns. Hanuman speaks for him: “I do not doubt him.”
Rama decides: “He who seeks refuge in me just once, telling me that ‘I am yours’, I shall give him assurance of safety.”
Apna samajhna, to count someone as one’s own. The Rekhta dictionary defines it in Hindi as behaving without hesitation in a close or friendly relationship, and counting someone as dear, close, a companion or a confidant, vishvaspatra. Its second meaning is to regard something as one’s own property.
A kitty party is an informal savings club, usually of women. The members meet regularly and each pays into a common pot. At each meeting one member takes the whole amount. “The kitty usually works with a set amount, say Rs 5000, and a fixed number of members,” the Free Press Journal explains.
The paper adds that kitties help women “to build a network of reliable individuals for emotional support and motivation.”