Kantal

In a day, if I don’t use the word ‘kantal’ (bored), I’ll overhear it at the market or on the train. I’m pretty sure you’ll hear it at the office or in college plenty of times. You’ll come across this word only in Mumbai; it is used by Marathi and Hindi speakers. This word has been in my vocabulary since childhood, so I never thought much of it until I watched a Kailash Kher interview where he recalls hearing the phrase ‘kantal aaya’ when he first came to the city and thought ‘kantal’ was a person who had just arrived. It struck me only then — Bombay/Mumbai is more than a city, it’s an entity with its ways, food, and, of course, slang.

Rahul Chemburkar is an architect and partner at Vaastu Vidhaan, and a heritage enthusiast