Raita Failana

January 25, 2021

Today’s Hindi idiom (मुहावरा) is:

रायता फैलाना।

(Transliteration: Raita failana.)

Literal translation: To spill the Raita (an Indian side-dish made of yoghurt mixed with sliced cucumbers, mint leaves, salt and water).

Spilling the Raita

Figurative meaning: To create a mess in any situation where things were going well.

Usage in a sample sentence:

हमारी शादी की पार्टी अच्छी चल रही थी, लेकिन अचानक मेरे पति की एक्स-गर्लफ्रेंड आई और पार्टी में रायता फैला दिया।

(Transliteration:  Hamari shaadi ki party achchi chal rahi thi, lekin achanak mere pati ki ex-girlfriend aayi aur party mein raita faila diya.)

Translation:  Our wedding party was going well, but suddenly my husband’s ex-girlfriend came and spilled the Raita (spoiled everyone’s mood).

Origins of the idiom: Raita is a fluid side-dish that is kept on the dinner table when dinner is laid out. Some people are careless and they spill the raita while serving themselves. Besides this creating a mess on the dinner table, some of the guests are forced to go without the raita. This creates a bad mood among the guests at a dinner party. This situation has been adopted in everyday speech to mean any situation where someone does something to spoil the mood or vitiate the general atmosphere.