A North Indian’s Reply

Exams! That time of the semester when everything and anything under the sun seems interesting! And then I came across an article on ManipalBlog which showcased a ‘Madrasi’s’ plight in bad old North India.

Well, first up, congratulations, Monalisha, for securing a seat in IWonderWhatYouHaveWithSimpleNames College. You ‘Madrasis’ (you seem to enjoy the term, hence I’ll continue using it, although personally I never called a South Indian Madrasi) think only of Punjab when you think of the North. But wait! What about J&K, Himachal, Haryana and UP? They’re all individual states, each with its own language. In fact, some of them have more than one language! And don’t even get me started on Delhi. Yes, Delhi is predominantly a Punjabi city, but you probably don’t know about the influx of Haryanvis, Biharis,Rajasthanis and people from UP! Hell, it’s the capital of India; it’s supposed to have an essence of the entire nation. It’s just your fault that your geographically limited brain enters the North with the prejudice that we will mock you. No. That’s your own inferiority complex developed because of your assumed superiority complex. Did that make sense to that working-hard-since-kindergarten brain of yours?

The fact that you guys need to know everything in class shows how much we revere your hard work. But we can stop that, if you like. We can simply mock you for knowing the number system in class 3, or dropping a year in classes 11 and 12 in Sri Chaitanya, Resonance or Brilliant, and still not ending up in IITs. But I agree that you guys don’t “only study.” No. You guys smoke like hell! And when it comes to drinking, you’re just as bad as us Punjabis. But we all watch Bollywood movies, have fun watching the Punjabi guy drink his whiskey with a chicken leg in his hand ranting on in drunk English. And so we’re branded. Too bad no one makes movies on you (ever thought how boring you guys are), or else people would know you’re no saints.

And you’ve called Punjabis brash. Please explain how your South Indian Mafia is any different? I won’t take any names, but we all know who the brash people are from each state.

You talk of language? You probably haven’t seen the North then. Unlike the South, people there are actually very welcoming. Even the most arrogant looking people are ready to help if you ask. But that gets you nowhere if you don’t know Tamil in Tamil Nadu, or Telugu in Andhra.

Your geographically limited brain won’t know where Chandigarh is. That’s probably why so many ‘Madrasis’ in my class confuse me for being a Delhiite, despite repeatedly being told where I’m from. Shimla is as good as Mount Everest for you, I guess, with your monkey caps and what nots.

But what pissed me off the most was how Monalisha has,very conveniently, written about us in the following way :” I guess it is the effect of being bestowed with booze instead of brains.” God! How this infuriates me and makes me laugh, both at the same time! Is the author referring to the Sikhs, who have laid down their lives countless time for this nation? Or is the reference being made out to all Punjabis, who have achieved higher success than any ‘Madrasi,’ all without a drop of coconut oil on their heads! Maybe the author’s geographically limited brain is just referring to non-Madrasi states; it has a higher chance.

It’s easy to travel to the North (or the South) with certain prejudices, but unless you make an effort to bridge the gap, you’ll just keep pointing fingers at each other. I just wanted to point out how ignorant the author himself/herself is. I meant no offence whatsoever to any ethnicity, group, or religion. In the end, we’re all part of one great nation, and it’s up to us to support our unity and I’m pretty sure I’m doing my bit.

About the Author: The author would like to be known by his pen name “Nexus” and is a student of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal University.

I gotta admit even though I’m a South Indian that there is mixture of people everywhere. You cannot deny that fact. People are very generous and welcoming as you said in North too. But country part is very different than Metro part. You cannot blame or claim to belong to one culture if you were born n raised in Metro. I observed many. The claims you are doing are suitable Countryside of North. I deeply agree with you that,had you said that. But Metro guys couldnt be consistent with their culture in either of the parts of India. But Majority of people from south aren’t like aforementioned,with prejudice or even the bad geographical knowledge. Probably you were able to comment that way because you’re inexperienced and saw far lesser number of people of south. And those of the your south counterpart dint even know because they are happy with the small apartment n studious life in their Metro city.

KS says:

November 30, 2013 at 11:07 AM

Excellent job, you certainly bridged the gap.

Venkat S Ravikanti says:

November 30, 2013 at 7:31 PM

I gotta admit even though I’m a South Indian that there is mixture of people everywhere. You cannot deny that fact. People are very generous and welcoming as you said in North too. But country part is very different than Metro part. You cannot blame or claim to belong to one culture if you were born n raised in Metro. I observed many. The claims you are doing are suitable Countryside of North. I deeply agree with you that,had you said that. But Metro guys couldnt be consistent with their culture in either of the parts of India. But Majority of people from south aren’t like aforementioned,with prejudice or even the bad geographical knowledge. Probably you were able to comment that way because you’re inexperienced and saw far lesser number of people of south. And those of the your south counterpart dint even know because they are happy with the small apartment n studious life in their Metro city.