Last evening I finally went and bought groceries. It usually takes me between a half hour to 3 hours depending on my list and I am usually happy at the end of it. Yesterday’s venture left me a bit sad and more agitated.
One of the items I buy almost every week is murukku. Unfortunately that’s all the fried stuff I can consume these days. But I have it at home without fail. As I passed thru the aisles putting things into the cart I noticed the shelf with all the namkeen stuff. I picked up a packet and turned it around to see the date of manufacture. And there it was … the reason for my melancholy (I am not exaggerating) for more than 12 hours now.
Just above the packaging information was the postal address of the manufacturer. It ended “… Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South India … ” I shrugged and laughed to myself for a moment. Then the smile waned and I just kept staring at it weirdly.
I have fought the thought all night, but it just keeps haunting me. I came to Bangalore thinking ‘I am just relocating to another part of my country’. When I look at people on the road, at work, at pubs or in cinema halls I think of them as my countrymen not as madrasis or any other derogatory term. But yesterday’s jolt makes me wonder if they think of me as a fellow Indian or just some outsider from slightly up north trying to invade “South India”, whatever heck that term means. To me it’s as meaningless as North India. Did we suddenly become a continent?
I want to ask these people a question. Doesn’t your conscience hurt you when you make money selling your products in northern markets? If tomorrow you need blood, will you refuse someone’s offer just because he is from up north? If you are being mugged, would you refuse to seek help from the only other person on the street just because he doesn’t speak your language?
One thing’s for sure. I’m not buying that brand of murukku anymore.
Posted by Scarlet on April 21, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Indian regionalism is really worse than racism in the world I guess.
Posted by Sid on April 22, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Nice post man.
But when you say ” how ‘they’ think of me”, aren’t you falling prey to the same regionalistic mindset that you hate.
‘they’ = ???
Posted by zoe on April 22, 2008 at 9:41 pm
i agree . i laugh at those kind of postal addresses too. its jst every one has got false beliefs u know? lyk for example ……….north indians (nt all of them) think that they are prettier coz they’ve gt the so called ‘fair skin’. but this is not true. fair skin dusnt necessarily mean pretty. i mean i find it ironic that the rest of the wrld is constantly trying to look darker while indians are trying to luk whiter. i guess no ones happy with wat theyve got. but anyway……its been proven that its not only north indians that are prett…….south indians are too. there are beautiful ppl and ugly ppl in EVERY region, country, continent etc….so they are feeling insecure coz they cant find anything else to be proud of so they are racist towards south indians. this is the case with south indians as well. they think they are smarter and richer coz a lot of them hold the so called ‘ professional jobs’ such doctors blah blah blah. and we know this is not true either. i say both regions are jst sad,insecure ppl. i can find ppl that are darker than any south indian in north india. and i can find u ppl that are smarter than south indians in north india too. india has is such a vast country and has a VERY old history so its impossible to make generalisation as these ‘genes’ are scaterred ALL over the place. these stereotypes are jst false.
Posted by Anup on April 24, 2008 at 7:31 am
@scarlet: yeah … remember this post sometime back: http://anupmankar.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/in-which-i-play-devils-advocate/
@sid: just a pitfall of the english grammar i guess
@zoe: exactly … maybe india would have been a free nation long back if we didn’t harbor such prejudices in our minds about our own people
Posted by zoe on April 27, 2008 at 2:58 am
i completely agree. its jst so wrong to believe in such stereotypes u know? yes some SIs are insanle clever. yes some NIs are insanely gorgeous but this is the truth that applies to the human race and not one particular race of men. and its so sad that we are diving ourself when the differences arent evn that great. NIs and SIs are closer to EACH other than theyare to OTHER races
Posted by Anup on April 28, 2008 at 6:18 am
@zoe: No matter how many similarities we see between the two, the fact remains that both are looking away from reality and both seem to be very happy poking each other with the sharp end of the stick. A third person trying to make amends would simply be crushed by the separatist forces that continue to pull India apart right through the middle.
Posted by zoe on April 30, 2008 at 8:02 pm
true. i think that indians hu r unhappy with wat they’ve gt (eg.skin color) or try to tell themselves that they r too gud by comparing themselves to other are the mst self-hating ppl on earth. no self-esteem wat so evr. imean wats with those fair and handsome creams huh? jst trying to be white ppl. bt they dont realise that u will never be a white, u will never be accepted as a white or evn close. indians shud jst be proud of hu they are and hw they born rather than trying to become someone they can nver become. and being fair dusnt make u any better, richer or pretteir.
Posted by zoe on April 30, 2008 at 8:07 pm
oh and i agree that the 3rd person wud be crushed bt that dsunt mean we shud stop trying. hw did that native american and white american learn to get along and become freinds and luv one another? becoz there were sum ppl out there hu didnt stop trying. the problem is stubborness. these ppl are too stubborn to accept facts and open their eyes.theyve spent too much time getting themselves brainwashed and believing things tha arent tru and nw that there are ppl that are trying to put the REAL facts out there and they dont like it. again lyk i said before. all NIs arent pretty. and all SIs are brainy and rich either. ppl refuse to accept this
Posted by Anup on May 5, 2008 at 7:54 am
Agreed on every count
The problem is we have lost all respect for our country and culture. Only the common one. Not the state-wise culture that tells us that people from other states are poor, ugly and uncouth.
Suddenly Sam feels closer than Sameer. We would much rather embrace an American hobo than offer a lift to one of our own. Paranoia about our own people and complete faith in foreigners has become a wont these days. The Indianness inside us is almost extinct.
I just had a few of my friends snubbed by a local pub in favour of some firangs. We have boycotted the pub ourselves and have also persuaded others not to go there. We will not stop till we drive them out of business.
I think it’s time we stood up and got ourselves counted as Indians.
Posted by Sid on May 5, 2008 at 8:26 am
Slight digression, your honour : : Which pub are you referring to?
Posted by Anup on May 5, 2008 at 8:30 am
@Sid: Hard Rock Cafe, Pune. The HRC Pune community on Orkut has the discussion.
Posted by Sid on May 5, 2008 at 8:51 am
Cool, for a minute i though it was our very own. Didn’t sound right.
Posted by Sid on May 5, 2008 at 9:02 am
Paste the link to the story…
Posted by Anup on May 5, 2008 at 10:03 am
“Our own” won’t kick out anyone
buddhe ko paisa chahiye na aakhir 
Posted by zoe on May 6, 2008 at 4:14 am
yeah i know. ppl have NO national integrity AT ALL
Posted by swamy on May 28, 2008 at 6:06 pm
well, i thought about what you are saying, and yes, may be there is regionalism.
but to a large extent, being a south indian from chennai, i feel there is a lot of discrimination towards south indians, compared to the other way round. yes, there is some regionalism and favoratism shown to our own kind, but i do feel there is a a lot of unsaid suppression of south indians.
i personally have faced discrimination because i am dark skinned , and my room mate faces a heck lot more being from the north east. he talks about the racist things north indians say to him when he was studying in pune and the gentler approach by people down here. its not only us, there are a lot more people with horror stories.
yes we are different, there is no denying that. i would personally relate much more to a tamil, telugu, kannada or malayalam person, than a hindi or bengali or marathi person.. its just the way we grew up…
the grass is always uglier on the other side, but people living in glass houses mustnt throw stones.
Posted by Anup on May 29, 2008 at 5:28 am
@Swamy: People who discriminate based on region & skin are present both in the north as well as the south. And it’s not that just because north India started bullying people that south India responded equally. The attitude has been there among both parties since after independence. More so since Hindi was initially chosen as the language for official communication.
But tell me, other than the nicknames and fun poked at you by classmates what kind of discrimination have you faced? Some girl refused to go out with you because you are from the south? Were you refused a job because you had dark skin? Did a north Indian hotel owner tell you to sit in a corner because you spoilt the decor? I guess not. We are a democratic country after all.
I have faced a lot more shit at the age of 10 for being from a lower caste. Trust me.
But don’t think I am cornering you in any way. My own people are pretty ignorant in a lot of matters. They too, like you, live inside a shell where they know everyone, speak the language everyone speaks, eat the same damn food day in and day out, and curse “outsiders” for spoiling their culture. Bull shit to the core!
Culture is something you define as a people. If you have the balls then stand up, be counted and claim the land in an unobtrusive way. If everyone liked the belligerent way of grabbing at things to call them one’s own, then people would have walked out on the streets and joined in with the extremists.
But the thinking man would never do that. He sees far more progress, prosperity and propriety in symbiosis. I guess symbiosis is a completely Utopian thought so far as the north-south divide goes. I just feel bad that my ancestors fought the Britishers for such an unworthy lot.