Neal had a biology exam that day, right after the lunch hour. So, he was in a rush from the very minute he walked into the cafeteria.
The place was crowded more than usual, it seemed. Looking for a place to sit, so he could gulp down the chicken burger, he scanned all the sitting area. That’s when he saw an empty spot next to her.
She was sitting alone, lost in her own world; eating and reading at the same time.
Their previous interactions were brief, nothing more than ‘hello’, ‘hi’ or ‘how are you’? He mostly saw her in the library, sitting in a corner, minding her own business, always busy with her books. Sometime she would sit alone but most of the time, her American friends surrounded her.
There were only a few Indian girls on the college campus, Henna was one of them.
“Hi Henna”, he said approaching the vacant seat.
“Hi, how are you,” she said with a slight smile. Her eyes went back to the book after a quick greeting.
He started to dig into his burger and fried. She kept reading, and eating.
“What are you reading?” he asked, trying to break the silence.
“Chumma”, she paused, “stuff”, she added without lifting her head.
All confused, he waited but a silence followed. ‘What kind of stuff that might be?’ he thought to him self – ‘chumma stuff!’
His brain working at 90 miles an hour, he was confused, very confused. The word ‘Chumma’ from north India that he knew meant ‘a big kiss’. Does that mean she was reading romantic stuff, or something else? He could not figure out, but he had no courage to ask her either.
Her eyes stayed glued to the book. ‘Must be very interesting’, he thought.
He looked at the time. ‘The exam starts in 15 min’, his thoughts shifted.
Shoving the last bite in his mouth, followed by a quick sip of soda, he ran off to the biology class.
“See you later, gotta go”, he said as he walked off.
“Later”, she replied, her eyes still fixed on her book
From that day on, he looked for her everyday in the lunch room. He used to succeed at least couple of days every week, to have a lunch with her. They talked about India, America, coming to America and the experiences of studying abroad. Whenever he caught her reading a book, he would promptly ask her, “What are you reading?”
“History” or “English” or some other subject was her typical response.
He kept waiting to catch her reading ‘chumma stuff’, but that did not happen.
After about two weeks of wait, he could not resist his building curiosity. When he saw her in the library, sitting in a corner and reading, he made his move.
“Hi”
“Hi, how are you!” She responded with a sly smile as always
“Good, what are you reading?” He said a quick silent prayer while waiting for response – ‘God, let it be ‘chumma stuff!’
“Just looking at my schedule right now?” she said quietly.
He paused, gathering all his courage, he spit out the awkward question, “So, Henna, what kind of chumma stuff you read?”
She looked at him perplexed. He realized that he needs to explain the question. So, he went on to tell her about their earlier encounter in the lunch room.
She smiled, and then she laughed; she laughed hysterically, not realizing that they were in the library’s quiet zone.
She paused, and then laughed some more, while he stood there confused.
“I guess you are from North India, probably have not heard word ‘chumma’ before in south Indian context,” she said.
He was still confused.
“I gotta go, have class now”, she walked off, still laughing.
After searching on Google, and Bing and talking to his desi friends, he came to learn later on that ‘chumma’ in Tamil means ‘just’ or ‘for the sake of it’.
“You see ‘chumma time-pass’ simply means ‘just time-pass’!” Hari explained.
“So, all along, she was reading ‘just stuff’, while I thought that she was reading some extra romantic books with steamy romance. How dumb!” he said aloud.
“America is not the only country you need to know more about, when it comes to multi-culture; we have so much more to learn about India!” Hari added.
“I know, I know!” they both laughed.
And now, every opportunity she gets, Henna goes out of her way to let him know what she is doing.
“Hey Neal, we are going out; want to come?”
“Going out where?”
“Chumma shopping!” a giggle follows as she walks off!
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#1 by Jennifer at March 19th, 2010
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This is so funny! Of course having myself studied in Chennai (then Madras) ‘chumma’ was one slang I easily learned. Then after two years of that, I visited some North Indian friends (who never came to south) and among some guy friends.. they asked me something and I said “chumma” and they all got the wrong idea! After I learned this means ‘kiss’ in Hindi, I realized the guys had totally mistaken me! I then explained the meaning of the South Indian chumma!
#2 by admin at March 19th, 2010
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In north India, Chumma means only one thing – a big kiss. And i did not know the south Indian meaning until last month.