Now this is one error that goes entirely to the credit or discredit of Dharmendra and Sholay. Of course the Hindi (and some English) news channels are perpetuating that error, which certainly does not help. I am sure you have guessed the word by now.
Yes the word is 'suicide'
The correct pronunciation is sue (soo)-i-side. In Hindi that would read as सूइसाइड. The Americans would say it as soo-uh-side i.e. सूअसाइड. But the common way of pronouncing this word in India is
su-side or सुसाइड.
And there are so many suicides ranging from common folk to Chief Medical Officers to models and actors - that the word keeps coming back to haunt me. So if you are a Hindi news anchor and are reading this, please either use soo-i-side or ख़ुदकुशी or आत्महत्या and spare us the torture. And if you are an English news anchor who mispronounces this, I have nothing to say to you.
By the way, I just love what those two gaaonwaalaas say in Sholay about suicide. When Dharmendra is shouting su-side from the 'paanii kii Tankii', one of them asks the other
'yeh su-side kyaa hotaa hai bhaai'
the other sage gaonvaalaa responds
'jab angrez log marte hai.n to use su-side kahte hai.n'
and the original querist comes back with a classic
'yeh angrez log marte kyo.n hai.n'
Well I sometimes get my blogs mixed up :)
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