It's summer already and Delhi is back on it's infamous heat streaks....a whopping 40 degrees for a while and lingering at 36+ in Celsius all day is anything but pretty...and to top it off, the Air Con at work was turned off....some intelligent soul decided that the Air Con deserved a holiday and thought of giving it one this Saturday. Uhm no...I'm not talking abt the situation at my company, but it's well....at a site where i'm working....the details, I shall refrain from revealing...let's just say an earlier cribbing session has come back to haunt me in the form of a project :( (Hey don't get me wrong, work's awesome!)
Another week ends and this time around instead of writing down my weekly report to my Technical Manager I thought I'd give my blog a shot...sigh and I'm back to having nothing to write. A long week can do things to you....but a long and eventful one at that. A friend flew in halfway around the world to meet me for one ;) Alright so she didn't fly down halfway around the world 'just' to meet me, there were other important things but hehe....let's just use the more appealing reason :D A Dilli Darshan that lasted almost 10hrs, loads of shopping and a goodbye at the airport sums up my thursday....did I forget to mention the amazing food? Sigh....I still drool thinking of the amazing stuff we had all thro' the day! Observe as I stuff in a 50Rs Momo :
Aaaaaah...now that we're done with the drooling...how many of you have got a compliment from a person who has later made you feel extremely uncomfortable with a racist statement? It was just another day at work, a site that is being set up by us Engineers and one of the officials from the client started up a conversation with me, let's just call him Mr K
This conversation has been translated from a combination of English and Hindi to English to assist the linguistically challenged and to avoid embarrassing myself 'coz of my extremely funny version of the National Language
Mr K: Hey Shanim, how's the progress on the site?
Me: Going on great sir. We're moving quite quickly and have managed to make and beat most of our targets. (yes yes I'm trying to make it sound 'professional' ;) )
Mr K: Do you know something, your Hindi is real good for a south indian
Blushes stammers and speaks gibberish and Mr. K regrets having uttered those few sentences mentioned above
Me: No sir, I'm far from perfect. I still make quite a few blunders as I speak. (sigh...modest ain't I?)
Mr K: Oh no, it is quite good. Since you primarily use other languages and use Hindi only to converse with us, I feel it is good. We find it very difficult to speak English, which we use only in rare situations, and you are quite fine with both English and Hindi. Even your accent sounds quite good and not like a southie.
Me: Oh!...Thank you :)
An awkward silence follows....
Mr K: So Shanim, what does your name mean?
Me (thinking): Sigh...hate this question!
Me: It doesn't really have a meaning. My dad had made it up and I find that a good enough reason to love it.
Mr K: That's real nice. So what is your full name?
Me: It's Shanim Sainul, sir.
Mr K: Oh, so you're christian are you?
Me (thinking): sigh....this would be the 2324112nd person assuming I'm X'ian...how do I tell the guy I'm agnostic?....uhm...let's leave it as Muslim
Me: No no sir, I'm Muslim
A silence follows, he looks uneasy and suddenly gets defensive
Mr K: Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be asking you this. Hope you don't mind.
Me (thinking): WTF???
Me: No sir, why should it be a problem :) It's okay.
We move in different directions and he resumes his silent chantings from the Bhagvath Gita as I continue to watch my Malaysian friend talk to the sub-contractors in a language that baffles me, it's a mixture of english and a dramatic performance worthy of an award. (Uhm...yeah I do help out eventually....I mean I have to stop laughing to do so, right?)
A normal conversation isn't it? or is it? Aren't we all just plain racists? We walk around talking about people from south india as madrasis or southies and when we're down south in Bangalore, we abuse the 'northies' who have absolutely no care for the city and it's beauty. We call people Mallus, Gultes, Pandis, Chinkies, Surds....the list just goes on. True we never realize it. We probably have the worst case of racist behavior and it continues to be a part of us being Indian. I've often heard people talk about their caste and how it is not acceptable to marry someone from a different caste, or of how another person was of a lower caste and their 'kind' used to deliver milk in villages. Now why did all this spark a thought in my otherwise vacuum head?
It's 10:30pm. I walk home after a tiring day at work and a tough search for some snacks for the long night (fine....I choose to make the nights long by sleeping at 2am) and on my way to the gate I overheard a very weird conversation. A man, quite tall and bulky was talking to a cycle rickshaw guy. The only thing I heard (which was quite loud mind you) was "Tum Hindu ho ke Musalmaan??" (Translated as "Are you Hindu or Muslim??"). I was distracted by a friend of mine at this point and didn't see what happened next but.......does this question really matter???? I often get jealous of the Chinese....most of them are free-thinkers and are not limited in their sights and perspective to just religion or castes for that matter. A Chinese friend of mine was fascinated when we talked about religion. She had never heard of Buddhism and Islam before and she looked at us like a 5-yr old at a candy store.
We remain in our closed boxes, shying away from interacting with people from 'other' backgrounds. After all, they are different and they can be threatening to us. Why the $!#@# are we still living in a archaic society??? Isn't it time we moved on and changed our perspective?
A religion is merely our guide to be good to the world, it's there to give us peace of mind and more often than not, we're born into it (atleast in India). Is this a reason to fight on or profile?? BEATS ME!!
Aaaaaah...now that we're done with the drooling...how many of you have got a compliment from a person who has later made you feel extremely uncomfortable with a racist statement? It was just another day at work, a site that is being set up by us Engineers and one of the officials from the client started up a conversation with me, let's just call him Mr K
This conversation has been translated from a combination of English and Hindi to English to assist the linguistically challenged and to avoid embarrassing myself 'coz of my extremely funny version of the National Language
Mr K: Hey Shanim, how's the progress on the site?
Me: Going on great sir. We're moving quite quickly and have managed to make and beat most of our targets. (yes yes I'm trying to make it sound 'professional' ;) )
Mr K: Do you know something, your Hindi is real good for a south indian
Blushes stammers and speaks gibberish and Mr. K regrets having uttered those few sentences mentioned above
Me: No sir, I'm far from perfect. I still make quite a few blunders as I speak. (sigh...modest ain't I?)
Mr K: Oh no, it is quite good. Since you primarily use other languages and use Hindi only to converse with us, I feel it is good. We find it very difficult to speak English, which we use only in rare situations, and you are quite fine with both English and Hindi. Even your accent sounds quite good and not like a southie.
Me: Oh!...Thank you :)
An awkward silence follows....
Mr K: So Shanim, what does your name mean?
Me (thinking): Sigh...hate this question!
Me: It doesn't really have a meaning. My dad had made it up and I find that a good enough reason to love it.
Mr K: That's real nice. So what is your full name?
Me: It's Shanim Sainul, sir.
Mr K: Oh, so you're christian are you?
Me (thinking): sigh....this would be the 2324112nd person assuming I'm X'ian...how do I tell the guy I'm agnostic?....uhm...let's leave it as Muslim
Me: No no sir, I'm Muslim
A silence follows, he looks uneasy and suddenly gets defensive
Mr K: Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be asking you this. Hope you don't mind.
Me (thinking): WTF???
Me: No sir, why should it be a problem :) It's okay.
We move in different directions and he resumes his silent chantings from the Bhagvath Gita as I continue to watch my Malaysian friend talk to the sub-contractors in a language that baffles me, it's a mixture of english and a dramatic performance worthy of an award. (Uhm...yeah I do help out eventually....I mean I have to stop laughing to do so, right?)
A normal conversation isn't it? or is it? Aren't we all just plain racists? We walk around talking about people from south india as madrasis or southies and when we're down south in Bangalore, we abuse the 'northies' who have absolutely no care for the city and it's beauty. We call people Mallus, Gultes, Pandis, Chinkies, Surds....the list just goes on. True we never realize it. We probably have the worst case of racist behavior and it continues to be a part of us being Indian. I've often heard people talk about their caste and how it is not acceptable to marry someone from a different caste, or of how another person was of a lower caste and their 'kind' used to deliver milk in villages. Now why did all this spark a thought in my otherwise vacuum head?
It's 10:30pm. I walk home after a tiring day at work and a tough search for some snacks for the long night (fine....I choose to make the nights long by sleeping at 2am) and on my way to the gate I overheard a very weird conversation. A man, quite tall and bulky was talking to a cycle rickshaw guy. The only thing I heard (which was quite loud mind you) was "Tum Hindu ho ke Musalmaan??" (Translated as "Are you Hindu or Muslim??"). I was distracted by a friend of mine at this point and didn't see what happened next but.......does this question really matter???? I often get jealous of the Chinese....most of them are free-thinkers and are not limited in their sights and perspective to just religion or castes for that matter. A Chinese friend of mine was fascinated when we talked about religion. She had never heard of Buddhism and Islam before and she looked at us like a 5-yr old at a candy store.
We remain in our closed boxes, shying away from interacting with people from 'other' backgrounds. After all, they are different and they can be threatening to us. Why the $!#@# are we still living in a archaic society??? Isn't it time we moved on and changed our perspective?
A religion is merely our guide to be good to the world, it's there to give us peace of mind and more often than not, we're born into it (atleast in India). Is this a reason to fight on or profile?? BEATS ME!!
Mon Apr 09, 07:00:00 PM
"A religion is merely our guide to be good to the world"-I agree with this 100%.
It has to be just a guide..
Our problem is that we often take guide for a text book.
:)
Wed Apr 11, 07:17:00 PM
dude i do agree to ur comments but all these truck load of religions that we have in India brings with it a plethora of cultures.
and as long as u r benevolent enough to accept and embrace other religions its fine; and thats one helluva wonderful experience that no chinese or american can have rt?
look at all of us for eg remember the vigor with which we would light up a x'mas tree or the sweet aroma of an Ifthar party or fillin ourselves up to the brim on Diwali's eve
see thats wat makes us so rich ; the ability to live and let live amidst an explosion of cultures.
cheers
manu
Thu Apr 26, 10:47:00 PM
That was a thought provoking one. Indian culture carries that reserved nature within itself. Too obedient , too diplomatic and ..Religion is a beautiful topic to saw seeds of nasty speculation into other's mind. I think you have tried that a little bit in here ...purely my personal opinion sir.
Last day I happened to see the mlayayalam movie 'Guru' . Its a very touching, well made one on religion. I dont know why ppl dont try to remake these kind of movies to other languages. Its really worth watching it.
Splendid language maan ...I envy u . Great going buddy !!!
Mon Apr 30, 11:59:00 AM
Bravo!!!!
** Huge round of applause**
I couldn't agree with you more...However modern we might seem on the outside, our insides are still prejudiced and thoughts still narrow-minded...I feel this discrimination is plaguing the world in it's entirity and India is not the only victim...probably, this is more evident in India bcoz of it's diverse people.
But, I feel all this mindless lingustic groupism and unnecessary nationalist fervor will die a slow death. Give it one more generation's time and all the racism will be halved...I feel that people of our generation are slight more open minded in accepting diveristy and definitely our progeny and their progeny will not be aware of "racism" or the vulgarity in thought of their ancestors, would probably seem mindless to them.
In hope of a better future
Megha
Tue May 01, 02:31:00 AM
@anoop
yeah dude...well said. Words and advices which were meant to teach us good is now used to spread hatred...two examples - hindutva and the so-called jihad
@manu
I agree, having soo many religions and cultures makes India totally unique....what bothers me is that the diversity that we're proud of...well...isn't really something we are totally working on. Till date there are workplaces where castes matter and managers are not respected just 'coz of their caste...pride on such actions is...well...i don't know...can't name it!
Tue May 01, 02:39:00 AM
@bobby
yep yep...guru is an amazing movie, and you're right, it ought to be translated into other languages...but i doubt if ppl would be able to relate to it....
for the benefit of non-mallu readers, the movie is about religious riots and how one person goes into a trance (or a coma) and dreams of a world where everyone is blinded by a fruit...in a nutshell, it brings out our attitude towards religion...where the fruit blinds us from reality and good...
thanks for the compliment dude
@megha
I'm flattered :D *blushes away*...yeah I agree, things are changing...but changing real slow...although things are changing in the urban areas and some states, it still plagues a majority of our nation...states like TN still have villages with two roads to any location...one for the upper caste and the other for the lower....it's disturbing! Why even hydie has it's share of weirdness...you have zones in the city where only mamas exist and others where u find only hindus....and more often than not...they find it extremely hard to interact with each other...
I just wish our kids don't see the cr@p we get to see around us...
Fri May 11, 01:30:00 PM
Fri May 11, 01:32:00 PM
shanim
nice article but i dont know where the root of the problem is..
it comes from a long time ago for sure and from our ancetors but can we really say we have overcome it (atleast in our minds?)
like rem the other day when u heard me talking on the fone and said ur a pucca southie :p
im not complaining..but i feel this issue is too deep rooted in us to ignore it or say that we have surpassed it.. true u might not have any prejudices against me depending on where i come from..but it is an integral part of our personality that makes a mark on all of us when we interact.
im not talking here about the caste thingy but just about our linguistic background.
i agree with megha when she says that some ages down the line... these differences wont figure..by then we would have created a lot of hybrid population :) if u know what i mean...
good post tho!
i hope the comment made sense..
if not we can always debate over mail :)
Fri May 25, 10:55:00 AM
Good one Shanim, but do you think it's going to change. It's so deeply rooted in our society, and sometimes don't we too think in that way(might not speak it out. Often I get to hear such comments from many well educated people, sometimes it's so disgusting, I still can't forget two questions that a friend of mine asked me when she came to know that I'm a Christian.
Anyhow I hope that in the coming years it's going to change, next generation will probably change, again it's our generation's responsibility to prevent such thoughts and ideas being injected to their mind.