I lived all my life in Southern part of India, but for a mumbai or delhi trip with family. In 2007 when i joined Whirlpool it was the first time i had to live for an extended period in the northern part of India. I have to thank my schooling and parents as i was ok with Hindi (my friends stay i have a slang of south indian while i speak, isn't it natural to have a slang ??). It wasn't something new that i was going to experience (atleast i thought so) as i studied at NIT W (a mini India) and majority of my friends have been the northies. Hindi was the flavor during those four years of college life where we co-exsisted but for some small state quarrels mainly over gals and 'chirkut' comments.
But life was to be so different. Living in north india all the south indians irrespective of the states where they hail from are called chennaities or thambis (the only word this part of india can twist). My first phase of 4 months wasn't tough though as there were plenty of trainess around and four months whissed by (2 out of 4 i was hit by acute jaundice and was restingin God's own place). Again in an opportunistic move (by company) i landed in Gurgaon (called millenium city of India) in 2009. I don't see a single reason why it is called Millenium city. I would rather call it the Dustiest city of India. A south Indian amongst northies -- Your skin colors is your sin, You taking bath in the morning and praying to god is considered yuck (not cool was ok, but yucky was hard to digest), You put oil to your hair (typical indian tradition to keep the head cool) very few would volunteer to have a converstation And eating by hand, forget it u will become the laughing stock. I an't joking at all.....These were hard realties that i had to accept being a southe in north. The only saving point for me was the language comfort that i had (i have seen the difficulty of the guys for whom hindi was alien). It left me wondering was I in India? Am i being osctrazied for my dravidian origin. It was so different from what i have lived and how we treated our guests (north, west or east of the country) back home. But i had to eat my ego and kill my anger for what i was being dished out to in my own country for the first few days of this new experience. Most of the places at office, guest house, public transports (autos are the only mode in gurgaon) it happened. I continued my way of eating with hand (more often than not), oil to my hair and other stuff as they were a part of my personality -'my habits'. Things started to change or may be my expectations changed as the days went by. I was getting comfortable when people at evey opportunity reminded me of the 'sins' and day flew. More friends and comfortable i was in Dusty city of India (but i still am wary of so called 'Delhites'). I still think they weren't joking. They keep dishing out the same treatment to all the dravidians one after other who land up there. May be it is their inferiority complex or insecurity or trying to be 'yo-yo'. Whatever it was pleasure staying there and experiencing the differnces my own people dished out to me and will continue to do so in my stints further.
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