ਬੇਚੈਨੀ

What does bechaini mean in Punjabi? Bechaini (ਬੇਚੈਨੀ) means restlessness, uneasiness and anxiety: the unsettled state in which the mind will not rest and the body cannot settle. Rekhta Dictionary glosses the word simply as uneasiness and restlessness, and Punjabi dictionaries give ਬੇਚੈਨੀ as the standard word for uneasiness.

What does bechaini mean in Punjabi?

Bechaini is the feeling of the night before a result, of waiting for a phone call that does not come, of sitting in one place while the mind keeps walking somewhere else. The person in that state is bechain (ਬੇਚੈਨ), restless, and bechaini is the state itself. Rekhta also records the phrase bechaini se, with restlessness, with unease, anxiously, which is how the word does its everyday work: kam bechaini naal kita gaya, the work was done anxiously, tells you the feeling rode along with the action.

Where does the word bechaini come from?

The word is built in plain sight on chain (ਚੈਨ), which means rest, ease and peace of mind. The prefix be- means without, and the ending -i turns the pair into the name of a state, so bechaini is, piece by piece, the state of being without rest. The link is not a guess: Rekhta's own gloss for chain calls it the opposite of bechaini, and the Punjabi pronunciation of ਬੇਚੈਨੀ is given as bechaini, with the chain inside it easy to hear.

What is the opposite of bechaini?

Its opposite is chain itself: rest, ease and peace of mind. Where bechaini keeps a person turning in bed, chain is the moment the turning stops. Dictionaries of uneasiness give the same family of opposites in English: ease, peace, comfort and calmness. In wider Punjabi speech, shanti (ਸ਼ਾਂਤੀ), peace, and sukh (ਸੁਖ), ease and happiness, stand on the same calm side, while bechaini stands alone on the restless side, waiting for news, sleep or relief to arrive.