Expletives making noisy entry into kids' lexicon!

If Indian television is the fountainhead of popular attitudes, then the expletivespewing five-year-old Chinky of television show Mann Ki Awaz Pratigya could be one indication of why Indian children love to cuss. In the show, the pigtailed schoolgirl goes around indiscriminately disgorging the finest Awadhi curses, sometimes prompting castigation but mostly inspiring doting affection.

Off screen too, in playgrounds, classrooms and living rooms across India, cuss words from undersized bandits hiding in school uniforms and sucking on lollipops are increasingly throwing off parents. For children who idolize the likes of Chinky and the obnoxious Japanese cartoon child, Shin Chan, mouthing bad words is the best way to seek attention. Recently, seven-yearold Pritam Chaudhary who goes to a Santa Cruz IB school, used a crude Hindi slang for male genitalia while referring to his tuition teacher. A firststandard teacher at a south Mumbai school found herself turning several shades of pink when a student showed her the finger when asked to spell a word. For another teacher who works in the area of brain development of children across the ages of four and nine, the innocent game of word association has forever turned macabre: One child linked the letter B with a crass Hindi term suggesting incestuous sexual ties.

"Usually they don't know the meaning of the cuss word and don't even want to figure it out," says Child Psychologist Seema Hingorrany, who is used to a steady stream of such cases. "It could come from parents who use cuss words in front of their kids, role models like older kids, domestic help, TV cartoon series or even movies. These have prompted certain kids to freely say saala and kameena as evidenced by their Facebook wall posts," she says.

Recently, Hingorrany came across an 11-year-old boy who used a cuss word in front of his teacher. When probed, the boy confessed that he could not "control himself" and that he had picked it up from the driver who could be found spouting the invectives when negotiating heavy traffic.

While children have always indulged in shocking their parents with the occasional unmentionable, the difference now is that the child's cuss vocabulary is more expansive and aggressive.

Ironically, the new generation of Indian parents who are inclined to view parenting as a professional exercise, is floundering over how to cope with the cuss offensive. A former software professional and now full-time mother Sangita Nalawade says she has tried several ways to curb the menace.

Punishing, excommunicating and not reacting to the cuss word, she had found her own ways around the problem. "Raising your voice or responding aggressively will only reinforce the attention-seeking behaviour and talking down will make them curious. I think the best way is to be stoic and make it clear that bad language is not okay," she says.

Vile Parle homemaker Sarita Khaura demands that her nine-year-old son "wash his mouth with soap" every time he utters a cuss word. "If not out of respect, he will stop cursing for fear of the ordeal," she says.