For coming up with the catchphrase of 2023, Jasmeen Kaur is just like a wow!

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Jasmeen Kaur, who runs a boutique in Delhi's Tilak Nagar. Around Diwali, she was promoting salwar suits on Instagram Live, when she unselfconsciously uttered the now-famous words, 'So beautiful, so elegant, just looking like a wow!' The keyword here is 'unselfconsciously'.

Since then, the sentence has trended like a monster.

Everyone is on the bandwagon, from A-list Bollywood actresses like Deepika Padukone to the ministry of railways, which used the phrase to describe Vande Bharat Express trains. ABCD Dance Factory's music video based on it collected millions of views.

It's like the lyrics in the Soul Asylum song 'Black Gold': 'See the crowd gather 'round/ Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.'

Kaur, who reminds me a little of Sima Aunty from Netflix's Indian Matchmaking, is using her instant fame to endorse a well-known brand of instant noodles: 'Just tasting like a wow!' It's a versatile phrase, as malleable and mouldable as putty.

A doctor doing his rounds asks her patient, 'So, how are you feeling this morning?' The patient replies, 'Just like a wow, doc!' A chef comes to a restaurant table, 'How is the food, sir.' 'Well, thank you, it's just like a wow!' A neighbour asks a neighbour how her vacation went, 'It went just like a wow!' A father meets his son outside the exam hall, 'Beta, how did the paper go?' The son responds, 'Just like a wow, Dad!' A stargazer might say, looking up at the twinkling stars, 'Tonight, the night sky is looking just like a wow!'

Catchphrases have a life of their own. No one quite knows why one takes off, and another doesn't.

After SRK's Chak De India came out, 'Chak De' became the nation's slogan. Just about everything was prefixed with a 'Chak de'.