- Adda (South Asian)
"For other uses, see
Adda "An adda is a form of intellectual exchange among members of the same socio-economic strata. [ [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/travel/tmagazine/15T-INDIA.html?ex=1142917200&en=086d620c97018174&ei=5070 New York Times article] ] It is most popular among the youths belonging to the so-called "middle-class intelligentsia". Although many
Kolkata ns boast of the city being the birthplace of adda culture,Satyajit Ray (in his filmAgantuk ) traces back the origin of the tradition to regular intellectual dialogues prevalent inAncient Greece at the time ofSocrates orPlato . Adda is a prominent leisurely activity inIndia andBangladesh ."Adda" was incorporated into the OED in
2004 .The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages:
*In
Hindi , adda is anoun , with the nominal form of the word meaning the location or nest of a group or community, usually shady people. The etymology can be traced to the original meaning of the word, which means the "perching spot or perch for birds"."'*In Bengali, adda is both a standalone
noun and anoun in anoun -verb compound. Thenominalization of the word has two senses - one being theHindi sense, and the other being the place of ritual meeting and/or conversation of a group of people. Theverb form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours at an end, and usually accompanied by food. The Bengali institution of the adda has also been the subject of recent scholarly attempts to reconstruct alternative histories of modernity in South Asia. [ [http://www.newschool.edu/gf/publicculture/backissues/pc27/05-ChakraX.html "Adda" on Newschool.edu] ]References
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