From: Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Indian Cultural Shock...
Date: 29 Sep 92 04:18:11 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Civil Engineering, Univ of BC

I'm not going to quote the earlier mails as I am going to veer away from
the topic a bit. As far as northies not having a clear picture of what the
south is made up of -- I guess there are the informed and the ignorant. My
own experience has mostly been good. I'm a 'Madrasi' who's lived in Delhi
for 22 years and whose Hindi is better than his Tamil (I can't read/write
Tamil at bearable speeds). Growing up (generally school years, but there
were isolated episodes in University too) was a slightly weird experience
when it came to the 'Madrasi' factor. It wasn't my accent that labelled
me (my Hindi is as smooth as the Tonga-walas who spit paan all over Old
Delhi streets), it was the colour of my skin.

I had oodles of friends (one advantage of living inside IIT campus) and
the usual share of 'enemies'. The latter category was a population that
included the 'permanent junta' component (people with whom peace was out
of the question), and the remaining were the type who you wrestled with
after the end of the football game, while yelling choice phrases at them that
covered the entire spectrum that Hindi offers (which BTW has the highest
obscenity bandwidth known to mankind), and then went home swearing not to
return the comics they had lent you some days ago. Of course, next evening
everything was forgotten and the game was on again. 

Everything sound kinda' normal and well balanced? NAAH! Both those groups
held a card that they used 'against' me most of the time. They would refer
to me as 'Saala kaalia Madrasi' (among the more polite salutations), and
say it as if 'kaalia Madrasi' types were scum of the earth. At this point I
would have no retort that carried equal substance and the fight would get
lopsided. It hurt, especially when I was younger. It was one thing to look
different from most of the kids around you, but to be constantly reminded
of the fact especially in nasty situations was something that I couldn't
come to terms with for quite a while. There were occasions when even fights
weren't necessary to provoke a _sneery_ 'Madrasi' greeting.

I am fairly positive that northie kids who grow up in the south don't face
reverse situations. What exactly caused kids in Delhi (my sample population) to
latch on to stuff like that? Was it acquired from observing their elders,
drinking Yamuna river water or watching those Hindi flicks
that usually portrayed a southie wearing traditional garb (which lent to
the comic value) with lots of 'vibuthi' and 'chandanam' on his forehead and
who would invariably give a 'funny' rendition of Hindi? :-)

Has any other 'Maddu' out there who's grown up in the north gone through
something similar? And if you were (or still are) the type who indulged in
the differential name calling, can you offer any theories re. this pheno-
menon?

Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca

ps: My name was another tool used against me in fights. It rhymes with 
'bandar' (monkey in Hindi) and 'chhuchandar' (a mythical rodent that I have
yet to see). In addition, my detractors questioned the wisdom of my folks
having chosen that name since I'm definitely not 'pretty' as the meaning
implies. :-)  :-)  :-)  I'm adding multiple smilies in case somebody comes
to the conclusion that I'm a humourless whiner.