Which Word Should Be Banned in 2015?

NEW DELHI: TIME magazine’s “Which Word Should Be Banned in 2015?” poll is in the news for the wrong reasons. Included with far-too-often used words such as “basic”, “literally”, and “om nom nom nom”, is the word “feminist.”

The magazine’s reason for including the word:

“You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.”

Umm, so why again is it bad for celebrities to state their position on whether feminist applies to them?

Just for that, we are boycotting TIME’s suggestions and proposing our own.

Which of these words/phrases -- far too often used in India -- would you propose to ban?

Fried/Frying: “I’m so fried,” or the variant, “stop frying me.” According to Urban Dictionary, the word is used to refer to a high induced by smoking marijuana. In India, however, the smokers have passed on the word to generally mean harassed, annoyed, or stressed. Go back to smoking your weed and stop frying the English language!

Bounce: Used to refer to exiting a location. Why can’t we stick with “I’m going to leave”?

Lend/Lending: Urban Dictionary has no definition for this word, that’s how Indian it is. Used when referring to a form of sycophancy: “Stop lending”, “Stop being a lend”. We propose banning this word because no one can define it correctly. Go ahead, try.

Pop it/Popping it: In the rest of the world, popping it can refer to twerking. In India, it refers to being harassed, annoyed or stressed (notice how we have so many phrases to describe these states). We propose banning it because we prefer the original (read ass protruding) meaning.

Yaar: Ban this word because it’s useless. It does nothing to a sentence whatsoever. “Let’s go to the movies, yaar” versus “Let’s go to the movies.” Which makes you sound like less of a douche? Ban it!

Movember: We suggest banning the word in the hope that it bans the trend. The reason? Log-in to Instagram and see how many annoying #Movember posts just took over your feed.

Literally: We are borrowing the word from the TIME list because it (and by that we mean, its incorrect usage) applies to Indians. Literally, does not mean figuratively. Stop using it like it does.

New Years: In just over a month, everyone is going to start asking you, “What are you doing for New Years?” It’s ONE day (or one half of two days), and correctly known as New Year’s Eve, or the New Year, if you want to refer to the morning/months/year after.

Gay: Here we are referring to a specific definition of the word. Gay does not mean lame. You’re lame for using the word incorrectly (not to mention, insensitively).

#NoNewFriends: When did the inability to make new friends become something to be proud of?