[Magdalen] Indian (and other) English

[Jay Weigel]

After working so much with many Indian doctors and nurses , I developed a
positive fondness for the peculiarities of Indian English, which is as
different from American or British English as they are from one another. I
often peruse Indian cooking and other sites and I just came across an
expression I hadn't seen before. I am familiar with one expression which is
used frequently to describe the process of heating mustard seeds in oil
until they make a spluttering noise, which is always written in recipes,
"Splutter the mustard." That always makes me smile, but this one made me
laugh out loud. Indian cooks have a love affair with their pressure
cookers. I don't....I'm scared to death of them....but I was reading a
recipe today for dal which included the phrase "Pressure to four whistles."
It makes sense, of course, but verbing sure does weird language.....and
Indian English verbs a LOT!