Many people tell you that the four
years spent in an engineering college are the best of a person’s life. The
social networking forums are filled with people who pine to relive their college
days. These days are the ones which build your character and thought process.
Accepted. But, what if the defining moment of your life came the day you left
home for college?
The journey to Jharkhand from
Bangalore was my first sojourn past the Vindhya Mountain Ranges (Yes. I visited
a foreign country but have never ventured outside the southern states of India).
When relatives and friends heard that the college I planned to go was in
Jharkhand, there were cries of shock and dismay. How can you go to a
‘naxalite-infested land’ was their question. One of my father’s friend told me
that people from north were not cordial to south-Indians and
that I would face discrimination wherever I would go. However, I had to
weigh the best options I had and finally made the journey to my college in
Ranchi. Coming to college was an one-of-it’s kind of experience. The sheer
number of people who had come to join the place was mind-boggling. The hostel
was bursting with activity. People were
getting acquainted with each other .I made a few friends on the first day (people
from different places) and attended a meeting called by the south-Indian guys
in my batch. There were people who were relaying instructions from the
south-Indian seniors saying that everyone speaking a particular language had to
stay in a group. Though it struck me as
something that was odd, It was in conjunction with what people told me
before I joined the place and I did not give much thought about it.
However,two incidents had an impact on me.
The first incident that made a
mark on my mind happened during the workshop class which is a basic course that
teaches you as to how the different industrial processes of making materials
work. While I was roaming about the place aimlessly (It is the most boring
course that a student can take. More on that on some other day) a classmate came
to me and asked a question in Hindi about the journals to be maintained. Being
pre-occupied with some random thoughts ,I missed his question and asked him to
repeat it by saying ‘pardon me’. He mumbled ‘Oh! South Indian’ and walked away.
I was rooted to the spot. Which person just walks away from you just because
you are from another part of the country? Though disappointed, I continued to
just walk around and converse with the others present. At the end of the day
the same person walks up to me and asks me about my native place. On receiving
the answer, he told me that I don’t look like a south Indian because I was of
wheatish complexion and that all south Indians were dark. This was again an off
the mark statement for me. What was I
supposed to think of. And all south
Indians are dark? From where do people get their knowledge from?
The second incident happened in the hostel mess when I was sitting along with some friends of mine. We were discussing about some political developments when a guy who was interested about it joined in. After half-an-hour or something he told me that I was the only south Indian he had felt comfortable talking to. He narrated an experience wherein a guy from south asked him if he kept guns at his house because he was from Bihar. That question appeared ridiculous to me. As bad as the ‘all south Indians are dark’ comment.
However, on that day something profound hit me. We have always let our perceptions define us. We have learnt to judge a book by it’s cover. Man always has a pre-conceived notion about everything under the sky. Not stopping at that, we have progressed to the level of judging people on the basis of our perceptions. This the sole reason as to why my friends and family did not want me to go to the north, why my classmate walked away and made some racist comments and why some guy had the question about people from Bihar. Any south-Indian guy is stereotyped to a person with oiled and combed hair with a fetish for lungis and an adulation for Rajinikanth (For the record ,he’s an amazing actor).Likewise, any guy from the north is said to have loose moral values and and is usually an uncouth and obnoxious person. The movies and entertainment industry takes these things to a whole new level. I don’t intend to make cinemas a soft target here, but a recent Bollywood “Block-buster Hit” movie made me cringe in my seat. All the fake Tamilian accents, poor imitation of mannerisms , dress styles ( Tamilian people shown with the ethnic dress of Kerala? Please get your act right, Mr. Director!).Similarly, I have seen south-Indian movies use sentences such as ”Bundle this guy to Bihar” ,”People from Jharkhand will come by the morning train, finish the target and go back by the evening one” and many others which are de-meaning and foolish. This attitude that we have towards other cultures must change.
On a personal level, I think that we must learn to enjoy the differences among us. I’ve had fantastic conversations with friends wherein we try to correct each other’s way of speaking. They tell me that a kitchen stove should be pronounced as ‘Stoov’ and not ‘ Stav’ as I do it. Another example is that of cucumber. I pronounce it as ‘kukumber’ and they call it ‘Q-cumber’. This has lead to some hilarious conversations which ended up in debating about the nuances of English grammar, the difference between the American and British English and about the logical fallacy of the Oxford dictionary. If you pronounce a word wrong, you are speaking the other version of English. Simple things such as ‘curry’ mean different things to us. For me, a ‘curry’ is something that has either vegetables or gravy. They refer to a cooked vegetable with no gravy at all as ‘curry’. I mentally visualize India as North India and South India. Anything other than the four southern states are northern states. People corrected it and told me that there is something called East and West also. According to me the lunch buffet is pronounced as ‘baffe’ whereas they call it ‘buffe’.The list is endless.
The fact that so many different ways of speaking and dialects exists is a testament to the diversity of our country. We must learn to shun stereotypes and embrace one other’s practices. Cultural differences should not play a role in the development of relationships. Every basket has it’s own rotten eggs. If I had really sulked at the way my classmate had behaved with me at the start ,I would have missed an opportunity to interact with wonderful people. They might not be from the same place that I come from but it does not take away the sheer joy and pleasure that I derive by interacting with them.Today,I move with an eclectic mixture of people who will stand by me when I am in trouble-Maharashtrians, Bengalis, Biharis, Jharkandites and Delhites-oops! I should address them as Indians. Instead of retreating into our own shells by only interacting with people who speak the same language let us be more accommodating and celebrate our differences!
Jai Hind!
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