OC Culture!

[sandykins]

Was browsing through the R.K.Narayan community when I chanced upon some praise for the Hindu columnnist V Gangadhar and a sample

Comments

[mahantesh]

"OC jevanvae laesu sarvagnya."
courtesy: Anil Kumar

[karthiks]

will be back in the family soon :-D

[oldhen]

OC is a very madras term though no? haven't heard it used much in bangalore..

Some judicious googling reveals that its origins date to the Raj:

Letters posted on behalf of the East India Company did not bear postage stamps, but had the words `On Company's Service' or `OC' written on them. In course of time `OC' in Madras slang came to mean `free.' [link]