A Note About the Name... Kya Khilega, Kya Dekhenge?

It comes from the title of a novel by Vinod Kumar Shukla. Rahul was sipping tea at our place, listening to me whine about the lack of a good name for the blog, when he suggested 'khilega to dekhenge'. The line from the novel is : फूल का एक पौधा रोपकर घर के सब लोग सारे काम छोड़कर उसके सामने बैठते नहीं थे कि फूल खिलेगा तो देखेंगे. यह तो महीने-दो-महीने के भविष्य में पता चलता... Roughly this translates, "Having planted a plant that promised flowers everybody in the home abandoned their daily chores and sat in front of it not, that it will bloom, we shall see. It would only become known in the future of a month or so."  I like how the word "तो" covers the meanings of "if" and "when" (अगर/जब) while being decidedly non-committal about it, as if there were a continuously variable knob on the level of attachment or interest you have in the matter. PhD hogi to kamayenge. Bhookh lagegi to khayenge.

Vinod Kumar Shukla's style takes a little while to get used but I would highly recommend "दीवार में एक खिड़की रहती थी" (A Window Lived in a Wall, Tr. Satti Khanna) for those who want to explore further.