jugaad

n. an improvised or jury-rigged solution; inventiveness, ingenuity, cleverness. Subjects: Hindi, India

Etymological Note: < Hindi.

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Citations: 1995 Barun S. Mitra Asian Wall Street Journal (Jan. 26) “India’s ‘Informal’ Car” p. 10: If one drives out of Delhi in any direction one is likely to encounter these hybrid vehicles within an hour. Known as “Jugaads,” which means roughly to provide or arrange, they have become a mainstay of rural transportation. 2002 Straits Times (Singapore) (Sept. 29) “What’s culture got to do with IT?”: New Delhi-based IT entrepreneur Karan Vir Singh, managing director of Voxtron Dezign Lab, called it the “jugaad” factor—the improvised quick fix. “It’s like putting two spoons of turmeric powder into your radiator if you spring a small leak,” he said. “It works, it will seal the leak. In Punjab, I have seen villagers buying an agricultural water pump at government subsidised rates, cannibalising some other parts from here and there, and turning it into a vehicle.” 2004 Sudip Talukdar Times of India (Jan. 1) “Makeshift Miracles: The Indian Genius for Jugaad”: The operative world of jugaad, implying alternatives, substitutes, improvisations and make-dos, is spurred by a native inventiveness steeped in a culture of scarcity and survival. 2004 John W. Fox Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y.) (July 16) “Chopra master of the improbable”: Daniel Chopra, who learned his golf in India, “seems to have plenty of the typical Indian quality of jugaad.”…A reporter who had peeked translated it as “finding alternative ways of doing improbable things ... creative improvisation.” 2005 Vaibhav Varma Channel NewsAsia (Singapore) (Mar. 20) “Ingenious ‘jugaad’ vehicles are an integral part of rural Indian economy”: In India, one vehicle is called the “jugaad” which literally translates as a “put-together contraption that moves.”

Posted 17 Jul 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

veer ji, the vehicle “jugaad” which you are referring here is actually known as “ghadukka” or “kadukka”. it is mostly used in punjab. regards.

by b.b.goyal barnala 26 Aug 06, 0722 GMT