This guy was standing in front of me in the queue when I and my mom were waiting to pay for our purchase at Giant counter. Reading what is written in his t-shirt, I told my mom to do the same. My mom was shocked and then smiled and asked me back, "ohw...! how come...? may be he doesn't know the meaning..?! or it must be some other language..!" she said. Well I have the same thoughts too...!
You must be thinking...why there so many chaos in us for that specific word. WHY NOT...? because that word has very different meaning in Tamil. Which is "mottai" means bald and "nai" means dog. So it sounds like a humiliating word when both combined together as"bald-dog". This type of words been much used in rural areas. Very often can be watched in Tamil movies whereby if the story revolves around slums.
But after reading the other words in that t-shirt, I found out it must be an universal word. So here it goes. The actual meaning of MOTTAINAI is Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized". Okay that one was stolen from wikipedia. You can read the full explanation here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai
For short and sweet explanation lover, here you go. A Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai was impressed by the depth of similarity between the Japanese meaning with English which is equivalent to "What a waste" or "Reduce, Reuse, Recyle". So she takes the courage to promote the word and spread the concept to the world as an international expression by wearing T-Shirt with the word printed on.
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