Indian English, documented.

A noun form for a graduation cohort — "I am a 2018 pass-out."

A cohort — a graduating class, a hiring class, a training group.

Working at the client's premises rather than the vendor's — often onsite abroad.

Cost to company — total employer spend per employee, including benefits, bonus, PF, and gratuity.

Please take whatever action is required — the speaker trusts you to know what it is.

Equated monthly instalment — the fixed loan-repayment figure.

A new graduate entering the job market; a first-year college student.

The final settlement on leaving a job — last salary, leave encashment, gratuity, minus any dues.

A warehouse.

A pay raise — or, by extension, any increase in salary or fare.

An annual raise — the standard yearly pay hike.

Please reply / get back to me. The doubled politeness ("kindly" + "revert") is unmistakably Indian office register.

A job at a multinational corporation — used as a category in its own right.

The weeks or months an employee must work after resigning — often 60 or 90 days in Indian contracts.

Working from the Indian delivery centre — the default home base for IT-services staff.

A deputation to the client's country — working abroad, usually USA, UK, or EU.

A point person sent first to handle a difficult task — from cricket.

Out of town, travelling, away from one's usual posting.

To graduate from school, college, or training — "I passed out from IIT in 2019."

An office runner — fetches files, serves tea, delivers documents between rooms.

Request to take all necessary action — universal in Indian office email closings.

To reschedule to an earlier time — the natural antonym of postpone.

To reply, respond, or get back to someone.

Net monthly salary after tax and deductions — what actually reaches the bank account.

The act of updating — a nominalisation used in Indian technology and office writing.

To photocopy.

To notify or inform officially — "kindly intimate us of your decision."

An open central courtyard within a traditional home — the social hub of a haveli or family house.

A general strike or enforced shutdown — shops close, transport stops.

A waiter or restaurant server.

A formal family visit in which a prospective groom and his relatives meet a prospective bride.

A traffic-blockade protest — vehicles parked across a road to prevent movement.

Educated at a Christian missionary school — typically with English as the medium of instruction.

A sit-in protest, especially one outside a public building.

Public sexual harassment of women by men.

An undergraduate degree with honours of the highest band — used as a noun ("I got a first-class").

Having returned from studying or working abroad — used adjectivally on résumés and matrimonial ads.

A full scholarship; an exemption from fees.

A protest tactic: surrounding an official and refusing to let them leave until demands are met.

The admission card required to sit for a board or university exam.

A general strike — shops and offices shut down in protest.

A mountain resort town, often a cool-climate retreat from the plains.

A household with multiple generations and brothers' families living together.

Please — often used where British English would say "please" and American English would say nothing at all.

Indian numbering units — 1 lakh = 100,000; 1 crore = 10,000,000 (= 100 lakh).

A long bamboo or metal-bound stick, especially as carried by police.

Police use of bamboo staves to disperse a crowd.

Of an age considered appropriate for marriage.

The 10th-standard school-leaving examination.

A protest march, usually ending at a government office with a list of demands.

One's first language.

One's ancestral hometown or village — often different from where one lives.

A village-level council of elected representatives — or, informally, a neighbourhood meeting to settle a dispute.

Graduating from a college, academy, or training programme.

A head or chief — variously, a village head (rural), temple priest (religious), or simply a respectful title.

The elected head of a panchayat — the top local-government official for a village or cluster of villages.

A government programme, welfare plan, or savings product — neutral, not sinister.

A shopfront phone booth for making long-distance and international calls, paid by the minute.

An administrative sub-district — the layer between district and village.

An oral examination — usually the final 10–20% of a practical subject's marks.

A polite way of asking someone's name — the "good" is an honorific, not a literal modifier.

A district — the main unit of local administration, headed by a District Magistrate or Collector.

A marriage negotiated by families — still the statistical norm in India.

Any older woman, whether kin or not — the respectful default address.

An auto-rickshaw — a three-wheeled urban taxi.

A clerk or bureaucrat — sometimes respectful, often mocking the bureaucracy.

The rear of a building or object.

The household help — cleans, cooks, or does both, usually a daily-wage employee.

Someone from the same graduating class, academy cohort, or training batch.

Room with toilet and often a shower — in India, even if there's no bath, it's still the "bathroom."

The small cup of tea served in bed first thing in the morning — often before brushing teeth.

Elder brother's wife — also a respectful address to an older sister-in-law or a friend's wife.

Elder brother — or a polite address to any unrelated man of similar/older age.

A spiced rice dish with meat or vegetables, layered and slow-cooked. A category, not a single recipe — Hyderabadi, Lucknowi, Kolkata, Sindhi all differ.

Aubergine; eggplant.

Bathing with a bucket of water and a mug — the traditional Indian bath, still common.

To memorise (verb). "He byhearted the formula."

Bell pepper.

One hundred per cent; completely.

A batsman's score of 100 or more runs — a career-defining achievement.

A category of tangy, spicy street-food snacks — often topped with chutneys, yogurt, and crispy bits.

Father's younger brother — a kinship term that English "uncle" blurs out.

Tea — specifically Indian-style milk tea with spices.

In India: just "tea" (chai = tea in Hindi). Often implies milky tea with sugar; specify "masala chai" for the spiced version.

An unleavened griddle-cooked flatbread — thinner than naan, softer than a paratha.

A flat leather or rubber sandal — open-toed, often with a toe-loop.

A night watchman — typically guards a home, office, or society gate after dark.

A student appointed to maintain discipline when the teacher is absent.

The husband of one's wife's sister — a man whose wife is one's sister-in-law.

Exam-prep institute-style teaching — IIT-JEE coaching, NEET coaching, UPSC coaching.

A residential neighbourhood or housing complex ("Defence Colony," "Vasant Kunj Colony").

A pressure cooker — the default kitchen appliance for cooking rice and dal.

A male or female cousin — the compound specifies gender and signals the warmth of a sibling-like bond.

A female first cousin — parallel to "cousin-brother."

An envelope, especially for letters or office memos.

Plain set yogurt — the everyday side dish in Indian meals.

In Indian English, the spiced gravy/sauce of a dish — or the dish itself when it has gravy. Distinguished from "dry" preparations (sabzi).

A pedalled three-wheeler — one driver in front, two passengers behind.

A stacked metal tiffin carrier — three or four tins that clip together for a hot lunch.

A lunchbox courier — collects home-cooked food from suburbs and delivers to offices.

Split pulses cooked into a lentil stew — a staple across Indian cuisines.

A washerman — picks up laundry weekly, returns it pressed and folded.

The boot of a car — the rear cargo compartment.

Elder sister — or a respectful term for any older young woman.

A spinner's variation that turns the other way from the standard off-break.

A thin, crisp South Indian pancake made from fermented rice and lentil batter. Plain dosa, masala dosa, paper dosa, rava dosa each differ.

Being dismissed in cricket for zero runs — "he was out for a duck."

Traditional South Indian meals served on banana or palm leaves rather than plates — at temples, weddings, and traditional restaurants.

A vegetarian who eats eggs — between pure-veg and omnivore.

South Indian coffee made by drip-filtering coffee-chicory powder through a tumbler-davarah, served with frothed milk and sugar.

An elevated road bridge over another road.

A pavement; a walking surface alongside a road.

A car, contrasted with the more common two-wheelers.

An unreserved coach on a long-distance train — first-come, crowded, cheaper.

A small electric or gas water heater mounted on a bathroom wall.

A spinner's deceptive delivery that breaks the opposite way to the batsman's expectation.

In Indian English, the curry sauce itself — "I want extra gravy" at a restaurant means more sauce.

A study supplement with answers, summaries, and exam-question patterns — often semi-official.

A narrow residential lane — too small for a car, just wide enough for a cycle.

A batsman's score of 50 or more — a lesser but still-celebrated milestone.

A large outdoor advertising board.

A painted request on the back of trucks — inviting overtakers to signal before passing.

Checking birth charts for compatibility before marriage — a formal step in many families.

A residential dormitory for students or young workers.

A restaurant or eatery — not necessarily a place to stay.

A steamed savoury cake made from fermented rice and lentil batter — a South Indian breakfast staple.

A portable electric element dropped into a bucket to heat water for bathing.

The intermission in a film or play.

A household battery-plus-converter unit that keeps lights and fans running during a power cut.

An improvised fix; a low-cost workaround; creative problem-solving under constraint.

A female domestic worker — the broader north-Indian term paralleling Mumbai's "bai."

Okra.

The suburban commuter train — especially in Mumbai, Chennai, or Kolkata.

Diarrhoea.

A marriage where partners chose each other — as opposed to an arranged marriage.

A cricket over in which no runs are scored against the bowler.

Mother's brother — not "mama" in the American sense (which confuses tourists).

A rented venue for weddings — a large hall with staging, seating, and catering kitchen.

A blend of ground spices — either a recipe mix or, metaphorically, drama and flavour.

Tea brewed with milk, sugar, and a spice mix — typically cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper. Recipes vary by household.

A round stainless steel spice box with seven small containers — the centre of every Indian kitchen.

A pharmacy / drugstore — where you buy prescription and OTC medicines.

A college or hostel dining hall.

A kitchen blender — the standard Indian household term.

Savoury snack — packaged or loose fried mixes of nuts, sev, lentils, and spices.

An illegal delivery by the bowler — the batsman cannot be out (mostly) and the team gets a free run.

Broken, not working (of machines); also, rude or inappropriate (of people — UK usage).

Indian fresh cheese — milk curdled with lemon or vinegar, pressed into a firm block. Doesn't melt; can be cubed and pan-fried.

A crisp hollow shell filled with spiced water, chickpeas, and tamarind — eaten in one bite.

A pan-fried layered flatbread — often stuffed with potato, cauliflower, or paneer.

A petrol station.

Genuine, proper, solid — "a pukka job," "pukka construction."

Strictly vegetarian — no egg, and often no onion or garlic in stricter readings.

Line up; wait in line.

A student who scores among the top in competitive exams — "he is a JEE ranker."

A biological brother — distinguishing from cousin-brothers and other extended-family forms of "brother."

Going over material to refresh memory before an exam.

A small hired passenger vehicle — in India, typically the three-wheeled auto-rickshaw.

A pencil eraser.

Vegetables — either raw produce or a cooked vegetable curry.

Government-related — used as an adjective: sarkari job, sarkari office, sarkari school.

A government job — historically aspirational for stability, pension, and status.

A housing complex run by a residents' association — "we stay in Shanti Park Society."

A non-alcoholic carbonated beverage — Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Limca, Thums Up.

A raised bump across a road that forces vehicles to slow down.

A school year — "fifth standard," "eighth standard."

A shop selling pens, paper, school supplies — and often greeting cards, stickers, small toys.

A spare tyre.

A mathematics problem of any kind — not just addition.

A tempering — spices briefly fried in hot oil or ghee and poured over a dish at the end.

Same-day/next-day emergency train-ticket booking — a separate quota with premium fare.

A round platter meal — several small bowls of curries, dal, rice, breads, and pickle, all served at once.

The monsoon season — "during the rains" means June–September. Often used singularly: "rains have started."

An auto-rickshaw or tuk-tuk — the ubiquitous small yellow-and-black taxi.

Three times.

A light packed meal — often a midday lunch carried in a stacked tin (the "tiffin box").

A subscription for home-style lunch delivery — a daily dabba to office or home.

Compound time phrases built on "evening" and "night" where other Englishes prefer "this evening" / "last night."

The student who ranks first in an exam or class.

Private coaching outside school — supplementary evening or weekend classes.

A specific coaching batch — "my maths tuition class is at 5 PM."

A motorbike or scooter — the legal/retail category.

A covered porch or balcony running along the outside of a house.

A ticket status where your seat is not yet confirmed — numbered WL 1, WL 2, etc.

A polite name for toilet — especially in restaurants, offices, and airports.

A pedestrian crossing with white stripes on the road.

A confirmation-checking tag roughly equivalent to "really?" or "is that so?"

Attached to a noun or time-phrase for emphasis — "I'll come today itself" = "I'll come this very day."

Placed at the end of a clause to intensify or confirm — "It is raining only" = "it really is raining" / "that's exactly what's happening."

"I am reaching home by 8" = "I'll arrive home by 8."

A conversational acknowledgement marker — "go on, I'm listening."

OK / I see / really? — an all-purpose Hindi acknowledgement that leaks into English.

An interjection of surprise, protest, or familiarity — "hey!," "oh!," "come on!"

The driver of an auto-rickshaw — addressed as "autowala bhai."

A student who sits in the back rows — stereotypically inattentive, often humorously self-identified.

A Mumbai street snack — puffed rice, sev, onions, tomatoes, tamarind-mint chutney. Eaten standing up, served in newspaper cones.

A film-choreographed dance style — synchronised group, expressive, melodramatic.

To skip a class or lecture.

Let's go / OK then / fine (moving on) — a transition marker.

A carbonated soft drink — Coke, Pepsi, Limca, Thums Up.

A person worth at least one crore (ten million) rupees.

Local, homegrown, of the subcontinent — used of food, people, and brands.

Dramatic, over-the-top, melodramatic — as in a film scene.

The very first screening of a new film on its opening day.

A student who sits in the front rows — a studious, teacher-facing type.

A phone greeting — "hello, go ahead, I'm listening."

A standalone high-energy song-and-dance sequence in a film — usually unconnected to the plot.

A person worth at least one lakh (100,000) rupees.

"You're welcome" — a response to "thank you." Direct calque of "don't mention it."

Rote learning, cramming for an exam.

A doubled "no" — polite but firm refusal, or emphatic negation.

A respectful/ironic address for a politician — "leader-ji."

"Off" and "on" used as verbs — "off the fan" = switch the fan off.

Generic terms for ride-hailing — "I'll Ola it" or "let's book an Uber" works for any cab service.

A coffee or tea shared between two cups — half-sized portions. Standard at South Indian filter-coffee stalls.

A request to make room on a crowded train bench, shared rickshaw, or seating — "four-seater please adjust for one more."

Initiation hazing of first-year students by seniors.

Exactly the same — usually of copied goods or identical outcomes.

Rest, take a break.

OK / fine / agreed — the all-purpose Hindi yes.

India's flagship indigenous cola — bolder and spicier than Coke or Pepsi. Iconic since 1977.

A way to pass time without serious purpose — watching TV, scrolling, casual chat. Often slightly self-deprecating.

Killing time; also, something pleasant but inconsequential ("the film was timepass").

In Indian English, often a compliment — "you're too much!" can mean "you're great" or "wow." Context matters.

Friend, mate — used as a direct-address affectionate filler ("come on, yaar").