From: cs641114@umbc8.umbc.edu (cs641114)
Subject: Re: Back from India
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County Campus
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 13:44:35 GMT


In article <1068@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu> chemsn@emory.edu (Sreehari Nimmala) writes:
>FHERTZBERG@finabo.abo.fi (Fredrik Hertzberg Lit) writes:
>: 
>:   Namaste!
>: 
>: this, we flew to Delhi from Madras (it took only about 3 hours). In Delhi,
>: people appeared to be much more unfriendly than in the south.
>
>Generally speaking, your above observation is more than 100%
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>correct. This may probably be because of sheer arrogance nature of people.
 ^^^^^^^           %%%%%%%%               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>You may have observed or not, but there is no meaning for 
     %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>"Advance Reservations" for rails in nothern part of India. People
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                     %%%%%%
>told me that even you made an advanced resrvation(say Ist class) on
 %%%%%%%
>a train, it would be hard for you to get little place to sit.
>People are seemingly so arrogant that they just walk in and occupy
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>the seats/berths. Some of southrners are generally scared to travel
                   %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>to north India. Though , being an Indian, I feel sorry for writing
                 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>these things about fellow Indians, I need accept the facts.
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

the post above is remarkable in its camouflaging ( shown by %%%%%) of sweeping
generalisations and assumptions ( shown by ^^^^^^). good technique. fortunately
not difficult to see through !

now, coming to the contents :

you have mouthed your these opinions based on the observations of _a_ person. 
of course, they are that of a "technically" unbiased person, so i am not going
into the veracity of his claims.

lets look at the post, peicemeal.

you talk of "sheer arrogance nature of the people". how did you come to that
conclusion ? let's say, tommorrow, a guy from timbuktoo has a opposite 
experience. would you attribute it to the "sheer arrogance nature" of the 
people in the south ? or would you say that the tourist must have deserved
the behaviour ? or will you think that "well, it was unfortunate he had a 
bad experience in the south" ?

and regarding unfriendly behaviour, i am sure you will receive markedly 
different behaviour from people in new york and people in a one-lane
town ! (i am not trying to draw parallels between delhi and madras)

now, let us talk about railway reservations. you cite the experience of "some"
people. let me tell you my case. people came in, knocked on the first class
coupe door, made us and others open the door and came in with their baggage 
and occupied seats/berths. should i conclude that "people are so seemingly 
arrogant" ? (this happened near the karnataka-TN border.)
if you think that this problem occurs only in certain parts of india, you 
have chosen to be ignorant.

let me now take a new case. when i was in madras, i found it easier to 
bargain with baggage loaders on the platforms and make them accept my offer
of the lifting charges. and i find it harder to do that in bombay and even 
harder in delhi. should i conclude that people in south are servile, in bombay
are firm and in the north are adamant ?

and lastly, do you think that people in madras would be the same as people
in say, adityapuram with regards to their behaviour towards tourists ? 

my point is that people of all behaviours and psyches exist and in almost all
places. don't single out any particular area or people.

you talk of "sheer arrogance nature" of the northerners, right ? go to delhi
and then go to any small town/village reasonably far away from the urban 
jungle. you will definitely find people of a "less arrogance nature" !
so, what happens to your theory of "sheer arrogance nature" of northerners ?
it gets flushed down the drain !

finally, let me clone a cliche.

one (or some) unfriendly behaviour(s) do(es) not a "sheer arrogance nature" 
make!

(one swallow does not a summer make)


>**This is a big wonder for us too.**
>
>---Sree
>
>:   Thanks again for telling us to mainly visit Southern India! 
>: 
>:   Greetings from Over There!!
>:   Fredrik Hertzberg, ]bo, Finland. 

i wonder how many told this guy to "mainly visit S. India" !


sundar kesh

ps : i am a an third party to the periodic north-south ranco(u?)r. i am from 
the west.

pps : flamettes will be ignored. infernos will be doused. i am now ready.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian