India, May 1 -- Recently, a UK employment tribunal ruled in favour of an Indian-origin healthcare assistant and awarded her approx '1.7 lakh in compensation after a colleague repeatedly called her "aunty" against her wishes. It was quoted that using it when unwantedly creates an offensive environment, and constitutes harassment, age and sex discrimination and carries a negative social impact.

Aunty, a social label, reflects a generational gap and is now taken to be a 'hostile' and ridiculed manner of addressing a lady. It is actually a spoiled form of "aunt," which, according to any English dictionary, means "father's/mother's sister." But in our society, it has a filthy meaning of not being young anymore, with its use further deteriorat...