BRASSICA OLERACEA
William, a British national travelling in the Himachal is puzzled. While trekking along the remote banks of the Satluj, he was thrilled to see jeeps carrying fresh cauliflowers. For the first couple of meals, however, he got cabbages in three different dhabas. The dhaba owners simply apologized and refused to take money. But none could explain to William this crucial linguistic difference between the two gobhis.
“But I did ask for ‘Gow-bhi’”, William said to his new friend, Premchand, who he met in a dhaba, where no one spoke in English except Premchand.
“You should say “ful gobhi” for cauliflower—,” Premchand tried to explain before William interrupted: “And ‘half-gobhi’ for cabbages?”
Premchand almost chocked laughing at William. “NO, my friend! ‘Patta-gobhi.’ ‘Patta’ means leaf and ‘phul’ means flower,” Premchand said with a smile.
“That’s beautiful. What does ‘gobhi’ mean then?” William asked.
“Gobhi means a gobhi. Why you ask? Add patta it is cabbage, add phul it becomes cauliflower,” Premchand insisted.
William quietly took out his smart phone and started learning Hindi.
“Some say cabbage is bandh (closed) gobhi and some call cabbage a gobhi,” he read out aloud to his friend.
Even the internet could not solve his confusion till date.
SEASONED 