Whenever I hear this word, my inner conscience got a moment of bliss. This is a traditional and very popular word used by Pun Magars in the Dhaulagiri region. Nowadays it is used all around the world that had migrated from that region. Dhaulagiri is also my anchesterial village which might be the main reason behind such blissful feelings towards this word, I guess. ‘Aezu’ is still been used in the countryside of the region.
‘Aezu’ is composed of two words ‘ye’ meaning ‘hello’ or ‘hey’ and ‘ju’ which is used to respect other after greeting their names. In normal Nepali language it is ‘jiu’ but the native people mainly Pun Magars of Dhaulagiri region say ‘ju’ instead. ‘Aezu’ is more often used to greet friends respectfully. If a friend is near we use ‘ju’ only but if s/he is at distance we use ‘aezu’. E.g. if ‘Gore’ is your friend’s name and he is near to you then you can greet him ‘Goreju’. If he is far then you can greet him ‘Aezu’.
‘Aezu’ was almost extinct. But some of notable groups and people of our society gave it a life. According to my knowledge, an inspirational musical group from Pokhara named themselves as ‘Aezu’ and composed songs using this word. They were the first group who officially used this word. In the similar way ‘Pun Magar Society’, Western Chitwan published their annual magazine using ‘Yezu’ as its title. And, later ‘Fimala Magazine’ an inspirational magazine of our society has given more emphasis to this word. Nowadays this word is more popular than before, which I think is because of indigenous movies produced by Fimala Films Production Co. titled ‘Aezu’ and its sequel ‘Aezu II’.
During my research in the villages of Dhaulagiri region for ‘Fimala magazine’ and attending ‘Karbakeli Investigation’ programes since 2059 B.S. I found more female users of this word. It shows that ‘Aezu’ has great social importance and values in our society. Pun magars are mainly ‘Kham’ speakers. ‘Kham’ is a language which has the mixture of native Magar and Nepali language. According to our senior citizens, Pun Magars were fined and consequently banned to speak magar language in fear of conspiracy from the contemporary regional kings of that region. As a result, we lost our language and manuscript. However, some of the words are still in our tongue which has great pride and importance. ‘Aezu’ is one of them.
For example ‘swina’, if someone says ‘swina’ then the people from this region easily understand it which means ‘dream’. But other races of people don’t. There are lots of such words. They also need conservation and preservation. For this one person’s commitment is not enough. We have to change ourselves. We need to start buying and reading more social, regional and other magazines. Doing these will certainly boost motivation of doing more socially important programes, works and publishing others magazines which consequently helps to document these words and restore our lost language in the other way.
Mejan Pun Magar
Translated by Inder Pun
यो शब्द एजु जब कानमा पर्दछ– आफैलाई भित्रैदेखि आनन्द लाग्ने गर्दछ । यो धौलागिरीको गाउँघरमा बोलिने पुन मगरहरुको परम्परागत शब्द हो । धौलागिरी मेरो पूर्खाको गाउँ हो र म पुन मगर भएकै कारण यो शब्द सुन्दा मनमा आनन्द आएको हो भन्ने लाग्दछ । गाउँघरमा अझै पनि यो शब्द बोलिने गरिन्छ ।
सम्बोधनार्थ बोलाइने ए र सम्मानार्थ बोलाइने जुबाट बनेको एजुले साथीलाई सम्मान स्वरुप बालाइने शब्द हो । नजिकको साथीलाई जु भनेर बोलाइन्छ भने अलि टाढाको साथीलाई बोलाउनु प-यो भने एजु भनेर बालाउने गरिन्छ । जस्तैः आफ्नो साथीको नाम गोरे हो र ऊ नजिकमा छ भने गोरेजु भनेर कुरा शुरु गरिन्छ । साथी टाढा छ भने जु भन्दा पनि एजु भनेर बोलाउने गरिन्छ ।
सम्बोधनार्थ बोलाइने ए र सम्मानार्थ बोलाइने जुबाट बनेको एजुले साथीलाई सम्मान स्वरुप बालाइने शब्द हो । नजिकको साथीलाई जु भनेर बोलाइन्छ भने अलि टाढाको साथीलाई बोलाउनु प-यो भने एजु भनेर बालाउने गरिन्छ । जस्तैः आफ्नो साथीको नाम गोरे हो र ऊ नजिकमा छ भने गोरेजु भनेर कुरा शुरु गरिन्छ । साथी टाढा छ भने जु भन्दा पनि एजु भनेर बोलाउने गरिन्छ ।
एजु शब्द लोप हुने क्रममा थियो जसलाई प्रयोगमा ल्याउने काम पोखराको एजु ब्याण्डले एजु शब्द राखेर गीत रचना गरि गाएका थिए भने पुन मगर समाज, पश्चिम चितवनले यजु शब्द प्रयोग गरि बार्षिक मुखपत्र प्रकाशन गरेको थिए । र, पछिल्लो क्रममा फिमला पत्रिकाले यो शब्दलाई मलजल दिने कार्य गरेको थियो । साथै यही शब्द प्रयोग गरि फिमला फिल्म प्रोडक्सन कम्पनीले एजु फिल्म निर्माण गरेको छ । जसमा एजु शब्दको प्रयोग राम्रै रुपमा भएको छ । साथमा टाइटल गीत एजु पनि रहेको छ ।
धौलागिरीको गाउँघरहरुमा म २०५९ साल देखि फिमला पत्रिकामा प्रकाशन गर्ने सामाग्री र हाम्रो पूर्खा करबाकेलीको खोज तथा छलफल गर्न जाँदा अथवा गाउँमा करबाकेली सम्बन्धी कार्यक्रम गर्ने क्रममा गाउँका बिशेष गरि महिलाहरुले कहिले एजु त कहिले जु भनि सम्बोधन गर्दै साथीलाई बोलाएको पाउँदछु । यसर्थ पनि यो शब्दको मौलिकता हाम्रो गाउँ घरमा गहन रुपमा रहेको छ । पुन मगरहरु मुलतः खाम (अथार मगराँत मगर भाषा) भाषा बोल्ने जातिहरु हुन् । धौलागिरीका पुन मगहरुलाई चाहिं पहिलेका राजाहरुलाई पुनहरुले भाषा बोलेर षडयन्त्र गरि मार्दछन् भनेर भाषा बोल्न रोक लगाईयो र दण्ड तिराइयो भन्ने कथन अझै पनि गाउँघरमा बुढापाकाहरुले भन्ने गर्दछन् । भाषा नबोल्ने भएतापनि हाम्रो जनजिब्रोमा अझ पनि हाम्रो भाषाका धेरै शब्दहरु अवशेषको रुपमा हामी बोल्ने गर्दछौं । जसको सानो उदाहरण यो एजु भन्ने शब्द पनि हो ।
उदाहरणको रुपमा सुईना । यो सुईना शब्दको मर्म धौलागिरीका पुन मगरहरुले ठ्याक्कै बुझ्दछन् तर अन्य जातिलाई यो सुईना भनेको के हो भन्ने लाग्दछ । यो सुईनाको अर्थ हामी सपनाको रुपमा बुझ्दछौंं । यसरी हाम्रो जनजिब्रोमा अझै पनि प्रयोग हुने तथा भएका यस्ता शब्दहरुको संरकक्षण पुस्तिकाको रुपमा नै गरिनु पर्दछ भन्ने लागिराखेको चाहिं हो । तर एक्लो व्यक्तिको चाहना मात्र भएर नहुने रहेछ । प्रकाशन भएर पनि हाम्रो समाजमा रहेका हामीहरु अध्ययनशील नभएकै कारणले गर्दा पनि पत्रपत्रिका/पुस्तकहरु कमैमात्रमा विक्री हुन्छ ।
— मेजन पुन मगर
