“Padikama OB Adikadhe” (Don’t waste time pretending to study), how many times have you heard this sentence from your mom when you were in school? Or your boss yelling at you “OB Adikalam nu nenachiya?”. We would have also heard similar sentences from many others starting from our teachers in school, to the extent that we would scratch our heads in confusion as to what the cryptic acronym “OB” really meant. This entirely Tamilian term, strangely enough, has its origins in the term “off-beat” used in the British Army to refer to retired officers or soldiers. Since they were going to retire from their service, these officers avoided doing any work and wasted time. Hence the term was used “OB adikardhu”, in Tamil, it also refers to the following activities: to avoid doing work, to jugaad-fy, to waste time, to chillax.
No more scratching our heads the next time we hear it.
oombs 