चमन गोटा दह्याचा लोटा

Author's note: The following poem is written for NaPoWriMo2021. Day 3 Prompt: "my favourite PG-13 gaali in my first language." However, my cuss experience being somewhat different from most, the poem turned out be rather... singular. Hope you can bear through it. Translations for Marathi words are at the end of the poem.

Two frowns, one gaping O-shaped mouth and a shrill giggle,

Three images neatly align,

when I recollect the first time

I said the शिवी: "चमन गोटा दह्याचा लोटा."

Much like you readers staring at this verse,

The four friends from my pre-school clique

Demanded an explanation, a justification

for that uncouth - What is it?!

Now, trained as I am with my speech today,

Explaining a शिवी was beyond the skill-set of my budding days.

I could only talk in incidents,

anecdotes in short increments

of when my father first used these words

to chide my naïve mistakes in maths book sums.

One time I challenged him and said

"तुला चश्मा आधी नव्हता"

He (bespectacled since youth) retorted:

"तू चमन गोटा दह्याचा लोटा"

You know those times when you act silly,

I strained to convey,

And your dad teases you till he

and your brother are left with only one thing to say

"तू चमन गोटा दह्याचा लोटा"

If the reader is still mystified, 

(Maybe even stupefied)

Like my friends back then, frozen to the spot,

I assure you this façade was not for naught.

Acutely aware of a kid's grasping abilities,

My father was wary of any untoward profanities.

A brash cuss, unwittingly uttered,

could harm the psyche of even a child in grade third.

But how to pick an expletive

When even 'moron' and 'गावठी'

carry insensitive connotations

with lifelong damages?

And so it began in the Sanzgiri house

Swear words were created not just said to avoid any grouse.

The first word alone can be an honest cuss

to be quickly concluded by a rhyme or verse.

You shouldn't say "lazy" to a child of two

but you can offend their youth, call them "ढमाले काकू"

Never call a kid stupid, it hurts their ego.

But yell "चमन गोटा" or "दह्याचा लोटा" and what can they do?

Peak creativity came in grade four

when बाबा upgraded to "Dumb-ledore."

Feelings, rather than abuse, was the key to communication.

So how could my friends expect me to explain

something akin to an emotion?

Translations:

शिवी (shivi): swearing, curse words

तुला चश्मा आधी नव्हता (Tula chashma aadhi navhta): You didn't have glasses before

तू चमन गोटा दह्याचा लोटा (Chaman gota dahyacha lota): As is explained in the poem, the whole thing does not have meaning or rhyme or reason but certain parts independently do have meaning like dahyacha lota - a small, round pot of curd.

गावठी (gaavthi): local, rustic

बाबा (baba): father