And *stop using* “please do the needful”!
For those who don’t work in IT, “please do the needful” is a phrase we’ve been seeing a lot of lately. I believe its origin is actually English – the English brought it to India, where it stuck. Of course, the English quit using it, because it really makes no sense (who uses a sentence without a noun in it?) but for some reason it stuck in India. And now, thanks to the magic of outsourcing, it’s made its way to America! Yay for the global economy!
So, anyway, I plan on archiving all my “needful” and similar messages here. Hope you find them as annoying (and funny) as I do.
5/18/06
Hi team,
Please check out the attached screenshot for servername . I am not able to push any files into because the /opt partition is full. Please do the needful.
(And thanks for attaching a .jpg screenshot, cause we couldn’t figure out that the disk was full just from your email. )
5/26/06
Hi,
I am username . My new UNIX ID has already been created by you. The problem I am facing is I can’t sudo to account from my login account by using “sudo -u -H bash –login” command.
I think Mr. Teamlead already raised concern for you.
I also need access to in INIDA on servername. So, please do the needful.
Thanks,
User
6/21/06
I am not able to change my password on servername, I get the following error
LDAP password information update failed: Unknown error
passwd: permission denied
I was albe to change password on otherservername.
Please do the needful.
Thanks,
User
[...] Well, I’ve gone and done it now. I’ve been talking in #linux about how cool it is to make a bootable USB key that does a bunch of stuff. I cleaned it up some and have released it as Billix. (Yeah, I know – real original name). Without going into too much detail, you can plop this on a USB key (or burn the CD image) – it should fit on a 256MB USB key with a little bit of room to spare, and then you can boot from it and do the following: [...]
I dont feel anything wrong in using so called Indian-English, let it be the phrase “Please do the needful”.
English is today a global language because it has kept growing by mingling with local languages else it would have been dead like latin/sanskrit.
Anyways, when colour would be color and analyse could be analyze, which really annoys me(and makes me to wonder what could be the reason for that?).
I think its time to rise above your local dialect and spelling etc and prepare oneself for global english where elevator may be called lift also.
Well, first, “please do the needful” HAS NO NOUN IN IT. Usually a sentence needs a subject and predicate, and there’s no subject there. “The needful” is an adjective, not a noun, so that’s why it’s so damn funny to American ears.
Second, I am American, and we reserve the right to make fun of whatever we want.
Third… THERE IS NO U IN “COLOR”. THERE IS NO S IN “ANALYZE”. This is a misconception that was started by the Brits, and now everyone from the Canadians to the Indians has been duped. The “u” in color comes from the French, who everyone loves to hate… and I’m surprised that the Brits continue to use that spelling when they have that love/hate relationship with the French. Whatever. Oh, and we do spell SOME words with “u” – see glamour – but “glamour” is a Scottish word, not a French word, so it’s OK. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....ifferences for other interesting trivia and whatnot. Like it matters anyway… My Webster dictionary shows it without a U and that’s how I’m gonna spell it, dammit.
This post has been brought to you by the letter “U”, most prominently displayed in the words “fUck” and “yoU”.
Take a look at
http://dotheneedfulstuff.com/
funny India English t-shirts
I hate the needful, heres the definition from wiki, It sounds to me like a way to tell someone to do something, without actually saying it. So if it doesn’t work, you can not blame the person that said “do the needful” because they didn’t tell you to do any one thing in particular. It is a way of avoiding responsibility and accountability. If you need me to do something for you, you had better be able to tell me what you want, assumptions crash systems. So all, “do the needful” and use your little hands to type a full and complete request. Explaining what you want. Not just some assumption that I know what you want.
Do the needful
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Do the needful” is a phrase which means “do that which is necessary”, and carries the respectful implication that you trust the other party to understand what needs doing without being given detailed instruction. It is commonly used in India and widely attributed as an Indianism, but the phrase may have its origins in British English instead, according to the Universal Dictionary of the English Language of 1932.
Hey – I work in tech support at Palm and I started seeing this about a year ago. At first, I didn’t even know what people were talking about when they sent me messages with this phrase in it.
Hi,
I will appreciate if you can do the needful to address this issue.
Regards
Shaibal