June 23, 2019

Pardon My Farsi

Himadri Roy on 'Farsi', a lost gay argot used in Delhi:
Nouns like panthi, koti, niharan, dhurani, jogta, danga were used with simplicity to mean the ‘man’ in a gay relationship, the ‘woman’ in a gay relationship, the girl friend of the gay partner, the gay partner who has a girlfriend, the ‘female’ in a lesbian relationship, and the ‘man’ in a lesbian relationship, respectively. The first two were used for gays, the third and foruth were for bisexuals and the last two were for lesbian people. Even the genitals also were talked about very openly in Farsi –like the penis was termed as lickum, or the breasts were termed with fruits, a huge breast would be termed as nariyal (coconut) and small-size breasts were called as anardana (pomegranate seeds).
More examples here. Kira Hall's work and other academic studies indicate that 'Farsi' is not limited to Delhi but is a more widely used argot evolved by the hijra community.

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