What started out as a personal rant from a Twitter user, has now snowballed into a linguistic and cultural debate on the usage of 'Tu' vs 'Aap'.
With some netizens churning out long threads arguing either sides, others have utilised the opportunity to make hilarious comments and memes on the entire fiasco.
The debate began when a woman shared her experience of visiting Mumbai and talking in Hindi. She found it disrespectful when strangers referred to her as 'tu' instead of 'aap' and called it "unacceptable behaviour".
She further commented that Marathi people refer to their mothers and grandmothers as 'tu', but not their fathers or grandfathers, and that this distinction stems from a patriarchal mindset.
Her tweets drew a lot of reactions from the netizens with some people pointing out that 'tu' in Marathi doesn't have a rude connotation to it, instead its used lovingly.
Despite the arguments, the hilarious memes are what took the cake.
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