Above the influence?

Not quite. Unrelatedly, I started thinking about how as we meld with different people, we all tend to pick up certain phrases, expressions from their vocabulary... It's happened so much through college that everyone including our families thought we Kadalais all sounded the same. Even though me n S sound soo different, more often than not if someone who hasn't known us long picks up the phone, they're confused as to who's talking (especially if I take S's call or vice versa). Some famous words have stood the test of time - "Duh", "Aumaaaans", "Galeej", - to name a few. I even picked up P's hai hai which I tend to use with a Hindi-friendly population.. Back in UC, we roomies pretty much had the same expressions for similar situations.. I think that kind of thing just tends to happen. And I can't recall if I have been the trend-setter more than a couple of times. Apparently, I am easily influenced! With the move to San Diego, came some newbies... particularly what we picked from S' - "Orshthuuuu" (a huge play on the word, "Worst"). Now with more new friends, I've identified their three mostly used words - "Bugger", "Sala" (hindi) and "Rascal". Personally, I think I am unlikely to pick up any of these... But time will tell..