I have been posed a seemingly simple query — which has turned out to be trickier than expected.

The question is: “What is the Indian equivalent for ‘cheers’?” I’ve racked my brains, trawled through numerous websites, spoken with friends and those in the F&B industry — and drawn a complete blank.

Now, I do know how many nations raise a toast. The French toast each other’s health with an À votre santé; the Brits and the Yankees say cheers; the Germans say prost, and the Scots clink their glasses to slainthe.

Other expressions include the Russian vashe zdrovie, the Turkish serefe, l’chaim in Yiddish and my favourite, the Croatian Zxivjeli! U zdravlje (pronounced ZHEEVELL-ee oo ZDRAHV-yeh).

Chant it aloud a few times.

Doesn’t it just sing?

The idea behind proposing a toast is to honor something or somebody, and most phrases boil down to a few basic expressions — victory, luck, honor, health, camaraderie and, in some cases, just an animated call to drain the glass.

But what about India? Do we really have a vernacular equivalent in India? Most of us stick to English expressions with the occasional mock reference to kursi and moodha. (Ek jaam aap ke naam or aapke lambi umar ke liye don’t hold a candle to cheers). So it was not surprising when a website I chanced upon cited the Hindi and Gujarati equivalents as — I kid you not — cheers! At the end of the day, all I can say is — I really don’t know the answer. Perhaps there is no word. Perhaps there is, something I have missed or overlooked. If you know, please do enlighten me. Till then, here’s a toast — to a toast.

(Source : Hindustan Times )