'Oh My God!' is still such a fresh phrase

OMG, or 'Oh my god!', is an exclamation that has gained popularity not just among those who believe in a higher power - even higher than the highest dispensation of the land - but also among atheists. It has even crossed the language barrier, used not infrequently by non-English speakers, making the phrase pleasantly planetary, despite its origins. Suddenly in the picture, being used by the prime minister during his recent trip to Denmark when confronted by a motley of travelling Indian reporters, 'Oh my god!' has a freshness about it that goes well beyond its 'Hey bhagwan!' roots.

There was a time when it was mildly blasphemous - seen as 'taking the lord's name in vain', an act of bad form among conservative Christians. For those who think that 'Oh my gosh!' would be a safer bet should remember that 'gosh' itself is a 'minced oath' - a euphemism that dodges the bullet of a blasphemous word like in the usage of 'fudge' - for god. The Akshay Kumar-starring 2012 satirical Hindi film OMG - Oh My God! proved to be a hit despite having religious undertones that could have got other movies in a pickle. A reasonable explanation for a movie that depicts a 'Krishna Vasudev Yadav from Gokul' as a sweet-talking real estate agent not having cheesed off anyone is its secular angrezi title even if it contains the word 'god'. Zor se bolo, Oh my god!