Haath udhaar, a hand loan. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as a loan that is asked for when it is needed, without anything in writing.
A second definition adds the terms. It is given “without writing,” on the promise that it will be returned soon.
No Business Without a Reference
In July 2015 weavers in Surat’s Sachin industrial area decided “not to do business with merchants who do not provide valid references.” A committee of the Sachin Weavers’ Welfare Association was to cross-verify the merchants’ details.
The same market also shares warnings. In January 2026 the Federation of Surat Trade and Textile Associations announced plans to “publicly name textile distributors defaulting on payments beyond the 180-day credit period,” on a mobile app.
Entering Behind Them
Many Marwari traders from Rajasthan settled in Calcutta. Drawing on Timberg’s history of the community, the researcher Nakatani writes: “The first Marwaris helped others to enter behind them.” They gave newcomers jobs and “opened a living place run on a cooperative basis for newcomers to stay in.”
As a commercial community, Nakatani adds, they “had relatively easy access to credit, information, and manpower from their organization.”
The Vocabulary of Letting Go
Chalta hai: it goes, it will do. The Rekhta dictionary gives “it works! it meets the need.” For sab chalta hai, everything goes, it adds: “usu. uttered when something substandard or wrong is approved of.”
Jaane do: let it go. Rekhta gives “never mind, let go of it, let it be, overlook it, forgive (him/her).”
Mitti pao: just leave it. Rekhta refers the reader to the form mitti dalo. Mitti is earth.
Bura Na Mano, Holi Hai
Bura na mano, Holi hai. Do not mind, it is Holi. The phrase belongs to Holi, the spring festival when people throw colors at each other.
Holi is also a day for ending quarrels. “Traditionally, on the day old rivalries are forgotten. Enemies declare truce and make peace,” one Hindu reference site writes. Not everyone accepts the license. The magazine Women’s Web has criticized the phrase as an excuse for harassment.
The Masala Is Over
In the IPL season of 2023, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir clashed on the field after a match in Lucknow. The league fined both of them. On March 29, 2024, Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore played Gambhir’s Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru. During a strategic time-out, the two men hugged in front of the cameras.
Kohli spoke about it afterward. “That means the masala is over for you guys. We are not kids anymore,” he said.
Every Endeavour to Reconcile
Section 23(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets a duty for the court before it decides a divorce case. “Before proceeding to grant any relief under this Act, it shall be the duty of the court in the first instance, in every case where it is possible so to do consistently with the nature and circumstances of the case, to make every endeavour to bring about a reconciliation between the parties.”
A proviso exempts petitions on certain grounds of divorce.
Frank, Open and Conclusive
In July 2020 Sachin Pilot rebelled against Ashok Gehlot, the Congress chief minister of Rajasthan. The party removed him as deputy chief minister. On August 10, 2020, Pilot met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, and the month-long crisis ended. The meeting was described as a “frank, open and conclusive discussion.” Sonia Gandhi set up a three-member committee to look into his grievances.
In November 2022 Gehlot said: “The MLAs will never accept someone who has revolted and has been dubbed as a gaddar.” Gaddar means traitor. In 2023 Pilot sat on a fast in Jaipur against the inaction of his own party’s government. The party’s in-charge for Rajasthan called it “anti-party activity.”
Mediation Before the Suit
Since May 3, 2018, Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, has required mediation before a commercial suit. A suit “which does not contemplate any urgent interim relief” “shall not be instituted unless the plaintiff exhausts the remedy of pre-institution mediation.”
The Insider Who Destroys Lanka
Ghar ka bhedi Lanka dhaye. The one who knows the secrets of the house brings down Lanka. Lanka is the kingdom of Ravana in the Ramayana. A folklore archive at the University of Southern California records the proverb as meaning that “the person who is a traitor to his/her own home can bring the entire house down.”