We're not racist....We're just a little pissed - P2
With the IT boom came the population explosion of Bangalore. Nope, it wasn't any localised baby boom that this part of the world saw. Instead, it was people from all over India coming in to get into what is, inarguably, the best field to be in if you are young and dream big.
With this, came the attitude.
And since then, things have spiralled downwards.
It's not as much a Bangaloreans dislike for North Idians (or for that matter, people from South India..remember the stats), but the average NI's holier-than-thou attitude that gets our goat.
Here are a few responses I got from my friends when I asked them whether they thought NI's were arrogant.
Atul said "I have seen and experienced the prejudice against south Indians by north Indians..."
Anoop was of the opinion that NI's are generally more pompous than SI's. Hence the holier-than-thou attitude.
Praveen said "I dont think Northies look down on southies.... Still they comment a lot on our accent and our movies too...(Being in the hostel, we get hilarious comments on senti n flamboyantly coloured song sequences in movies here..).. Although, we too laugh with them,Still we feel somewht bad.."
Others I spoke to or those who wrote to me were generally of the consensus that, well, yeah, it does happen sometimes, but it may be true vice -versa too. But what made me really happy was except for a few here and there, nobody dared generalise. Shows how the mindset of Gen-X (yup...we're Gen X...gen Y is the one with pink mobile phones) is so different fromt the generation before us.
OK. Before, I launch into what my view of the subject is, let's see why NI's may have a grouse against the city that feeds them. This would be true for any person who goes and lives in a city that is not his home. DK hit the nail on the head when he mailed me this....
1) They get cheated almost everywhere coz they are unable to communicate in local language(shops and autos etc).
2) In any issue localites support thier own people over non-localites. Even if they know that the localite is guilty.
3) Even police will ignore most of the times non-localites.
4) Localites won't talk to them unless it is unavoidalble.
5) Localites will try to warn them that the place is not thier home and its not easy to do all things they used to do at thier place.
6) They may be pissed with the weather conditions there.
Well, maybe not no. 6, but what the heck.
Let me start with this incident that happened next to my house. There's this PG accomodation that a Marathi guy runs. He's a nice guy, lived in Karnataka for almost all his life. He is, like we say, an achchu-kattu Kannadiga. There were 4 North Indians together with two South Indians living in that house. One fine night, after a drinking session, the North Indians went wild, screaming at the top of their voice, hurling abuses at the owner. (We all know the standard abuses from NI, don't we? Not very pretty) This went on for quite some time. When one of the SI's questioned them as to why they were doing what they were doing, he got to view just 4 scornful faces in reply. The next day, when the owner found out about this, he failed to take it lying down. He woke up these guys from their booze induced slumber, gave them a months notice to clear out of the house. When I spoke to him(the owner) later, he told me that it was not the drinking he was bothered about. But the abuses that were hurled at him (racist) were just unacceptable. He now says that he will never accept any NI's in his PG hostel.
He generalized. I refuse to.....
More about my opinion in the next part
With this, came the attitude.
And since then, things have spiralled downwards.
It's not as much a Bangaloreans dislike for North Idians (or for that matter, people from South India..remember the stats), but the average NI's holier-than-thou attitude that gets our goat.
Here are a few responses I got from my friends when I asked them whether they thought NI's were arrogant.
Atul said "I have seen and experienced the prejudice against south Indians by north Indians..."
Anoop was of the opinion that NI's are generally more pompous than SI's. Hence the holier-than-thou attitude.
Praveen said "I dont think Northies look down on southies.... Still they comment a lot on our accent and our movies too...(Being in the hostel, we get hilarious comments on senti n flamboyantly coloured song sequences in movies here..).. Although, we too laugh with them,Still we feel somewht bad.."
Others I spoke to or those who wrote to me were generally of the consensus that, well, yeah, it does happen sometimes, but it may be true vice -versa too. But what made me really happy was except for a few here and there, nobody dared generalise. Shows how the mindset of Gen-X (yup...we're Gen X...gen Y is the one with pink mobile phones) is so different fromt the generation before us.
OK. Before, I launch into what my view of the subject is, let's see why NI's may have a grouse against the city that feeds them. This would be true for any person who goes and lives in a city that is not his home. DK hit the nail on the head when he mailed me this....
1) They get cheated almost everywhere coz they are unable to communicate in local language(shops and autos etc).
2) In any issue localites support thier own people over non-localites. Even if they know that the localite is guilty.
3) Even police will ignore most of the times non-localites.
4) Localites won't talk to them unless it is unavoidalble.
5) Localites will try to warn them that the place is not thier home and its not easy to do all things they used to do at thier place.
6) They may be pissed with the weather conditions there.
Well, maybe not no. 6, but what the heck.
Let me start with this incident that happened next to my house. There's this PG accomodation that a Marathi guy runs. He's a nice guy, lived in Karnataka for almost all his life. He is, like we say, an achchu-kattu Kannadiga. There were 4 North Indians together with two South Indians living in that house. One fine night, after a drinking session, the North Indians went wild, screaming at the top of their voice, hurling abuses at the owner. (We all know the standard abuses from NI, don't we? Not very pretty) This went on for quite some time. When one of the SI's questioned them as to why they were doing what they were doing, he got to view just 4 scornful faces in reply. The next day, when the owner found out about this, he failed to take it lying down. He woke up these guys from their booze induced slumber, gave them a months notice to clear out of the house. When I spoke to him(the owner) later, he told me that it was not the drinking he was bothered about. But the abuses that were hurled at him (racist) were just unacceptable. He now says that he will never accept any NI's in his PG hostel.
He generalized. I refuse to.....
More about my opinion in the next part
2 comments:
traveling to US..UK and now Europe..I call myself an Indian..I forget me from North or South
I guess I have to travel to Mars to call myself an Earthian:)
Bengali by birth..bought up in Bihar..now Jharkhand...settled in Bangalore for the last 6 yrs...what should I call my self??
Predujice happens everywhere...but I guess theres always few who dont give it a thought....as for kini..he is a so called South Indian...but I a North Indian have trusted him the way I trust my so called North Indian friends...
and Kini I am suprised you wrote about such a petty incident...I though you might be thinking about some broader issues...I mean are you sure issues like these are not prevalent in NI
As for me I am more bothered with the reservation issue..it sure calls for unification..and I am sure the doctors on stirke are both from NI and SI.
FYI..me reaching India this weekend...lets go for a couple of drinks and chettinad
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