Languages on Friendship:
On Sakhi  

Almost all Indian languages have a tendency to slip past neat definitions. Words, phrases, idioms, metaphors, and even sentences work at more than one level. To understand this, let us delve into the word sakhi. 

Borrowed from Sanskrit into Urdu, the word written as سکھی can mean a friend, a companion, or someone close. The word written as سخی comes from Arabic, meaning generous and bountiful. Though both words have distinct sounds based on the pronunciation of their letters, over the years, the distinction has vanished in speech. What remains is a word that feels open, full of meaning, and yet elusive. Moreover, the original words coexist in such a way that the Arabic sakhi eventually becomes a function of the Sanskrit sakhi: my companion is generous. 

Sakhi also does something else that English struggles with — it refuses to declare gender. Sakhi-saheli, in colloquial usage, might make us assume that sakhi means a female friend. But through Urdu poetry, we come to understand that this term embodies multiplicity. You can call a man sakhi, you can call a woman sakhi, and you can even use it in a tone that hovers between affection and admiration. More importantly,…