North Indians and other people with attitudes

A friend of mine, a staunch hater or anything N.Indian, recently pointed me to this post. As I read it, and I couldn't but help agree with most of the observations. Now, let me clarify: I'm not a hater of "Northies", as they are commonly known, but I do have certain reservations about the way they portray themselves. I also readily acknowledge that these observations are highly eneralised, and not all N.Indians are guilty of them. In fact, I have a few N.Indians with whom I get along without any problems, or with as many problems as I have with other Indians.

That said, their attitude towards S.Indians is ire-raising, to say the least. What tops the list is their expectation, no, that's too weak a word, demand that every S.Indian be able to speak Hindi. You know, as if it's a mandate. Hindi may be a national language, but a lot of the S.Indian languages are official languages too. And if English was good enough to be the language in which the constitution was drafted, then I suppose it should be good enough for anybody else in this country.

Equally irritating is their ignorant assumption that all S.Indians are Madrasis, and S.Indian food = idli sambar. It's possible to simply ignore it as the joke of ignoramuses, but what gets my goat is their mocking tone. Even if we assume all S.Indians live on idli and sambar (which they do not), what's it about chappathi and dhaal that makes it inherently superior? Dietary habits have probably evolved as a result of geographical conditions, physical energy needs, tastes, etc., so I find nothing funny about Rajasthanis eating bajra or Andhra people favouring pickles.

What's pitiful about all this is even some of my colleagues indulge in this stupidity. Of course, I should have known better than to assume that education bestows uncommon sense when reality screams otherwise. For, it's the educated people who think it's a sign of cleverness if they travel without tickets - the uneducated simply are unaware; it's the educated who know that bribery is wrong and still justify it by claiming "everybody does it" - the uneducated simply don't think enough to make such justifications; it's the educated who show a scanty disregard for corporate parking spaces - the uneducated are generally not rich enough to own vehicles; it's the educated who travel far and wide and litter all those places with their plastics - the uneducated are mostly content in their home towns.

People, let's try and understand this much - we've been given an education not because it's a means to earn more money, but because it gives us an opportunity to widen our horizons. We're all one species, albeit with inevitable individual differences. Instead of allowing these differences to divide us, it behooves us to learn to tolerate them at least, and respect them if we can. And as thinking beings, let's learn to talk civilly about our differences, not berate one another.