Friday, July 27, 2007

My North Indian Friend

I got a call from one of my friend( actually speaking one of the avoided brigade of friends) after almost 6-7 months.I was surprised on getting her call cos we werent the best of friends and we have spoken to each other only a few times.She started talking on a very apologetic note.Oh ya, she wanted my help. She is from U.P and was placed in an IT company in Chennai and she needed my help in finding her an accomodation in the city.Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur was her first choice.I gave her some assurance on finding her a suitable accomodation and called a couple of my friends & relatives to put them on the job of finding her a good place.

After about 2 weeks, we found her a place in Indra nagar. She was happy.I was happy too cos I was of some help to her.PEACE!!!

She used to call me every week ( guess it was some form of gratitude) which later was reduced to mails, and further dwindled to mere SMS'es.When during the calls stage, she was happy being here, during mails, she wasnt so, and during SMS'es, it went downhill .Every SMS from her was only about her sufferings of a North Indian in CHINNAI ( dont you know most of the North Indians say CHINNAI instead of CHENNAI). Once or twice, I tried cajoling her that things wud be allright. But it got worse later that everytime I got an SMs from her, I flinched.Everytime she talks, she said more or less of these:

*Chinnai is alaways hot yaar
*Why do the men here have to gape on seeing a girl in some teeny weeny t shirt?
*People dont speak Hindi
*Auto fellows charge a bomb
*Only idli, dosa and sambar
* No Atta made rotis here, all rotis made of maida
*No asli Punjabi khaana
*No night life

I have always had a feeling that North Indians dread coming to south. To them,. South is MADRAS and all South Indians are Madrasis.Why is it that invariably, most of the North Indians crib on coming to South? I have lived in Pune, and gelled well with the place. My family was in Delhi for a few years and we thoroughly enjoyed those 3-4 years there.My friend asked me why people dont speak Hindi. May be they dont want to, I said.We speak Tamil and English.I dont think I can communicate to an autowala in Delhi in english as I can do it here in Chennai.And what did you tell me? Only idli dosas? You guys thrive in Aloo.I had to have only aloo parathas, aloo sabji when I was in the North.I had to struggle in finding one good place where I could have some typical South Indian food.These kind of conversation only makes me all protective of the place I live in.No offence meant here, but guess we should learn to respect the place we live in.When in Rome, be a Roman. Try learning something from the place you live in so that you could live anywhere in the world.Stop making an upheaval about such trivial things.Every place has its uniquness. And this post wudnt be complete without me saying that I love Madras and everything that makes it up.

17 comments:

sudha said...

well written re..seriously i knw couple of such ppl who jus keep bitching abt the place they liv-in..why aint such ppl willing to accept the good things around........ ..Btw to the readers im a Northindian by origin but chennite by native..i love chennai..Chennai Rocks !!!!

Anonymous said...

shub dont you remember the kind of arguments we have had over this? gosh ! lady you hit the nail I should say.amazing post and well written

Sriram said...

Thamizhan yendru solladaa thalai nimirndhu nilladaa nu bharathi sollittu pona maadhri, thamizh is rich in literature and culture that we tamilians are very proud of. Adhunaala namakku hindi la paesanumnu avasiyam illa that too in our beloved tamilnadu.. wen we go out we adapt ourselves.. naan ulloor la onaan pidichurukkaen and veliyoor la and velinaattula ottagamum pidichurukaen, soakkaa sollirukka subha nee, be a roman in rome, adhae nam thaaraga mandhiram.
These north indians are like this only south esp. madras patthi comment pannalainaa avangalaala thoongavae mudiyaadhu..
ivanungalailaam naadu kadatthanum.. ullayae vida koodaadhu..
Very good subha another awesome portrayal ma.
As u say sorgamae aanaalum adhu namma sennai pola varaadhu..
Mere pyaara madras ki jai..
[:P]

ss said...

@ sudha
dont u remem our P from bombay talkin abt chinnai?

@ Aj
thanks a ton.ayyo, dont ever talk to me abt that argument we had with pankaj and the gang.we have had enuff of it and still they never change

ss said...

@sriram
the point i wanted to say was every place has its uniqueness and we shudnt b making an issue out of it. i personally knw many of my south indian frnds who have so easily adapted to the north indian places. then y make a fuss wen u come to chennai? and another thing is i can NOT really think of communicating to an autokaran/ kaikarikaran or pookaran in english ( read as TIT BIT english) in a place like delhi/chandigarh or for that matter even pune, as i do it here in chennai. even ym servant talks words like clean, sorry and all.hindi rashtrabhashannu sollarathellam periya udanpadu illa, english rules the roost!anyways, thanks a lot sriram, nee itha ivlo porumaya padichathukku!

Sriram said...

Nandri naan dhaan unakku sollanum.. for giving stuffs like this to feast upon.

sudha said...

yeah I very well remember.she just kept bitching about chennai but still ended up going all the way to t nagar to shop

Anonymous said...

very correct subha... Even i have many friends like this.. there was this female in our hospital from mumbai and guess vat she was talking about..??? "CLEANLINESS IN CHENNAI"... as if Mumbai is an abode of cleanliness... she was here for one full month for a training and not a day passed without she commenting something or the other abt chennai... At the end of a month she was so happy that she gave sweets to everyone... V ver only equally happy to chuck her out of our place..!!!

Pradeep said...

well said...even i have heard and am getting such comments about CHINNAI from my college mates placed here...but can't help such ppl with attitude towards places...anyways CHINNAI reminded me of Mrs. Saini....

ss said...

@ papu
who is this? i mean, guess this is some kind of a nick name..i knw u n thats evident from ur mention of mrs.saini. kindly leave ur name.

Pradeep said...

enna kodumai sir ithu....its me, Pradeep Kanagaraj...athu ennoda profile create panrache erpatta oru kuzhappathinal nick name kuduthutten...

ss said...

@ papu
ayyo pradeep, mannichukonga. dint knw it cud b u but was pretty sure its someone from my pune gang. thanks a lot for dropping by. btw, ithu puthu pera irukkuey?

Anonymous said...

Hmm..Why don't we speak Hindi?
Answer could be
Why don't you speak English? English has been around in India for 400 years now. The Hindi, as propounded by the saffron brigade is actually much younger surprisingly. While contemporary Hindi derives from several languages, such as Bhojpuri, Magadhi and a whole lot of Urdu, by itself, it is pretty young. There was no such language called Hindi 400 years ago.

Unknown said...

aah a typical post about the northies and they suck big time

Unknown said...

U r Creating communial Clash.........
Buzzzzz........

North indian's are dare to say some thing they dont like ...
Madrasis dont have the dareness and habitated to live in all condition (even with out water lol)...

ss said...

communal clash? oh comeon..my post is only abt their cribbing nature and not being able to adjust to a place like chennai..

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.