Terms of endearment !!! ;)

“aji sunte ho” is a phrase that is hardly ever used today.. so when i heard it used by a neighbour when she called out to her husband..i was surprised. Wow, for seemingly modern woman, she was not calling her husband by name... i casually said the same to her... “how come you don’t call your husband by name.. “ the husband who was within earshot burst out laughing.. “haha..you are sadly mistaken...she meant AG sunte ho... AG is short form for “Abe Gadha”.

In earlier days men and women never addressed their spouses by name. It was always “bunty ki maa” or “chunu, munu ke papa” or the courtly “bhaagwaan sunti ho”.

My own parents would address each other with cute names and strange initials –although they were very careful not to use it in front of other relatives. Me and my sister as children would ask them what it meant and we would get only shy smiles from my mom and naughty grin from my dad.

I have pet names too for my DH and use it normally...but when i call out his full name loudly.. it means he is in trouble and he better drop everything and come right away... Old fashioned way of addressing one’s spouse did create distance and spoilt the chance of having a nice little yelling match when angry...all the fight would go out of us by the time we finish yelling “ramaswamy krishnamurthi ke papa” :rant

In some families the parents address each other as “maa” and “paa” :roll: especially after the children come...so that the children also follow suit... and end up becoming each others ‘ parent :eek

Recently a man filed a petition in Mumbai high court claiming that his wife addressing him as “gonchu” and “bewakoof” (idiot) amounted to cruelty.... the judge rubbished it off saying that gonchu literally means – stupid but loveable and that in marriage one should not be sensitive to such things... (wonder what the judge was called by his wife ) If the relationship is cracking, a cute nick name or even a term of extreme respect can take sinister meaning.

“Gadha / gonchu”, "honey bunch" or “aji sunte ho” – after all whats in a name? :bowdown