Hindi idioms

Chikwa is a community of people who are butchers by profession.

That's more plausible.

@vir
In which region do they live? I see you carry the epithet "indori" below your name. Is this a Malwa community? I presume it is a Muslim community.

Wait!! I just found something. They are apparently a sub-caste of the Dhangar. In the list Chikva comes just before Kasai, which is of course the generic word for "butcher".

Thanks! That solves it.

@shreder
What are you reading? Is it Vrindavanlal Verma's Ahilyabai?

@vir
I have identified your avatar as the Indore Rajwada (It's in the Wiki article on Indore).

Golghar- No, I'm still reading Raag Darbari.
While we're at it, what are your favorite novels in Hindi? I'll be in Delhi in January, and I'm planning on going on a Hindi books shopping spree.

They are from Uttar Pradesh region and yes they are from Muslim community. Not from Malwa.

Dear Golghar, yes its Rajwada in Indore. It seems like you have read many many hindi books and quite familiar with the Geography of India. I just know few things since I grew up In Indore.

The place to go to in Delhi is Rajkamal Prakashan in Daryaganj. They are booksellers as well as being a publishing house and have staff who can give good advice. They are the publishers of Phanishvarnath "Renu"'s Maila Aanchal. This is my favourite Hindi novel, but I am likely to be somewhat biased as the author was, like me, a native of Bihar and the novel is set in post-independence Bihar, where I grew up.

Someone else I could recommend is Chandradhar Sharma "Guleri". He didn't write any full-length novels, more short stories or novellas. All his fictional prose is available in a single volume.

Thanks, I'll drop by there.

Another question I'd like to ask you Golghar, do you know a good place in Delhi to find academic books about Hindi language and linguistics?

You could try Atma Ram and Sons at Kashmiri Gate. I presume there is a book shop catering to Jawaharlal Nehru University and a similar one at Jamia Milia. A book I can recommend is:

Handa, Rajendra Lal: History of Hindi Language and Literature, Bombay 1978, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

It is currently out of print but the second-hand bookshops on Nai Sarak (off Chandni Chowk) would be where to look for it.

Another book you might find interesting is
Masica, Colin P.: The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge University Press 1993
This gives you a good idea of the place of Hindi within the Linguistic Geography of the Indian Subcontinent.

this is an amazing thread! i have learnt so much going through it. thank you, all.

Thanks a lot for your detailed post! You've just made my schedule in Delhi much more hectic.

I've read Masica's book, luckily it's available at my university's library. It is truly excellent, and very well written, which as I'm sure you're aware of, is not something to be taken for granted when it comes to books in the linguistics field.

The other book sounds very interesting, I hope I could locate it. I've found copies online, but they cost 50$.

I have a grammatical question this time.
If I use the number डेढ़ (dedh- 1.5), should the noun be in plural or in singular?

For example: What is correct -
mere paas dedh kela baaki hai
Or
mere paas dedh kela baaki hain


Thanks

In my view, 'mere paas dedh kely baaki hain' seems to be right.

I would say singular-- derh kela baki hai.