Treeeeeee!

Ever paid careful attention to your vocabulary and why it is the way it is? There are hundreds of non-dictionary words in my vocabulary, and many of them have long stories attached to them.

Take ‘treeeee’ for example. (The number of ‘e’s is of course variable). I caught on to it from the audiobook ‘Life of Pi’ (which is an otherwise not-so well narrated book, but we are digressing). The author blows a whistle to ‘tame’ a tiger. And this blowing of a whistle is ‘treeee treeeeeee treeeeeee’. The word has just caught on and me and Lisa put it to uses which I am sure the original author couldn’t have dreamt of. The most common use is to express happiness. It’s so cool to say ‘treeeeeeee treeeeee’ when you are happy – just like a bird chirps! Adding the otherwise innocuous question mark makes it a very potent question. ‘Where are you? Treeeee?’ Definitely means much more than the same question without the ‘treeee’.

Another word is ‘kukoo’. Again, don’t try to find any meaning to it – it’s Lisa’s invention. Saying kukoo to your friend while walking on the road is such a nice way of asking him/her to cross the road. Of course, like treeee, kukoo can be put to many uses. Good ol’ ‘Bye’ is easily replaced by ‘alright, kukooo’ as the last sentence before you disconnect your phone.

‘Shansey-wansey’ (that’s yours truly) is another one. Of course, countless more came and went in my undergrad. ‘Moin’, ‘Pannu’, ‘Bbu’, ‘Mundu’, ‘bugger’, ‘chichu’, ’anna’ (the last three to a limited extent) are all essentially meaningless but serve such an important purpose – they add ‘kukoo’ to life.  Treeeee?