Abdul se maangaa thaa, saale ne passbook dikha di

Film : Gharaonda
Year of release : 1977
Spoken by : Sudip (Amol Palekar)
Spoken to : Guha (Sadhu Meher)
Dialogue writer : Gulzar

This is a sequence from the 1977 Hindi classic Gharaonda. Sudip (Amol Palekar) and Chhaayaa (Zarinaa Wahab) are a young couple with a dream of having a home (Gharaonda) of their own. But given the fact that in 1977 we did not even have an HDFC in place, owning a house of one's own was almost a pipe dream for a middle class person. This is captured beautifully in this film. Coming to the germane topic, Sudip is constantly looking for money in order to save up for the ever elusive dream. In one such instance, Sudip is looking for Rs 5000 to book a flat in a society where his chawl roommate Guha has also booked a flat. But he is unable to come up with the money. Guha reminds him about this and Sudip expresses his inability to come up with the money. Guha suggests that he should take a loan from someone. Sudip's acerbic response is

"kahaa.n se loo.n loan. Abdul se maangaa thaa, saale ne passbook dikhaa di. sattar rupaye the sirf"

"अब्दुल से मांगा था, साले ने पासबुक दिखा दी. सत्तर रुपये थे सिर्फ़ "

which means that when I asked him for money, he showed his bank statement (literally). Figuratively this means that if you wish to share your sorrows with someone and ask for help and if that person starts sharing his own tales of woe, then you would say this. This happens all the time, especially in a world where the only answer expected and hence possible to the question "how are you?" is "I am fine. How about you?". No one even remotely wants to listen to the real answer. As the title of that offbeat film went "Everybody says I'm fine". And in the rare event where people do share their woes, they only expect you to listen. Else, they would say

साले ने पास बुक दिखा दी