Jugaar is a Hindi word that doesn’t translate. And it doesn’t need to, because it wouldn’t make sense in any place that I can think of. Instead, it makes all the possible sense in India, and I am lead to think that jugaar is what India is based on, what gives it its ultimate energy and its hopeless optimism.
Jugaar is the art of making things work.
Jugaar is keeping together a scooter engine with little iron pieces taken out from the old fence behind the mechanic shop. Jugaar is delivering a king size mattress with an auto rickshaw. Jugaar is using electronic devices where there is no plug, but only wires. Jugaar is turning three wrong-sized pieces of wood in one: not one that looks good, but one that is exactly the size you need. Jugaar is turning old things into other working things, to recycle without caring about the appearance. It is all functionality without any aesthetic.
Jugaar is the art of being creative and finding solutions. Always. With complimentary smile and bubble-head.
We have abracadabra, in the fairy tales. They have jugaar in every single day of their -oh, so real- life.
