Few day's back i came acrossa post about Delhi Men " Open letter to Delhi Boys " a week later i saw it as a half page post in the Times of India Delhi Edition. With 2/3rd space given to that letter and 1/3rd given to a reply by someone else. Her blog alone got more than 1600 comments.She was a madrassan bitching about 'delhi' 'punjabis' & 'boys'.
She wrote a lot of stuff, bad stuff about delhi boys & north indian Culture and boasted alot about 'madraasis'. After reading all that my bloody obviously boiled and i wished if i could get hold of her and make chicken nuggets out of her skin. I saw the long list of comments, some supporting her, some criticising her and others abusing her. It suddenly struck me that, the entire post means nothing, It reminded me of what i used to do during college time. During the first year of college we all guys will sit togetherin the WIFI room and then will go to a pakistan chat room and start hurling abuses at them, self fabricated abuses to their gods, people, mother, father. Though as a group activity it was lot of fun! but was a very stupid thing to do.
I have seen a few southies in my previous company, one individual to whom i used to speak the most was a south india though he was much older to me, he still used to share his issues freely and so did i and he could hold his liquor, lot of lliquor !. In my project team there were many bengali's so much that i developed the habbit of calling everyone a 'Dah'. Working their was so much fun coz of the diversity the team offered. The bengali's will distribute some sweets in the office during some pooja karke festival, the southie christians will distribute cake to the entire department during some of their festival. Sending mails about their customs and all. Though i was given the stereotype that bengali's are shrewd, southies are intelligent & clever and cunning, Stawy away from UP people etc. The steroetype about the 'Punjabi's was they drink and are hardcore Non vegiterians. When i joined my company i neither used to drink nor eat non veg, i will be told " Tum kaisa punjabi/sardar hai .. peeta nahin non veg nahin khata, punjabi log toh sabse zyada nonveg khata hai, tumhara woh Butter chicken kaafi famous hai ( i started drinking two years back and Non veg 9 montsh back ) ". Even despite every one saying these things about every other person of the group, it never came in between us & the bond we all shared. We used to work, go out , have fun together. Diversity is so much fun !
One cannot travel to all the places of the country (some lucky bastards do ! envy.) & office is the only way to socialize with different cultures. Categorizing & genralizing is of no use as you are bound to find exceptions, and lots of them, doesnt matter what notion you have about people.
Now comming back to the blog, i actually made a list of all the points from her blog that i will counter with examples from the southern part of the country but if i know it, then so does everyone else. But she is a very good writer. & got her due recognition with half the country face-booking, tweeting and the entire Delhi reading her post in the newspaper.
PS : Subway launched a very cute small sandwich "subbie" its a cute lil, single dressing sandwich, kinda like a kiddie sandwich.
aha! was it worth publishing in a newspaper? no matter how well she's written it, it's abusive and full of hatred. you can take it seriously, or you can just laugh it off. but then, that's the story in each part of this country. east, west, south, and north never leave any opportunity to poke fun at each other. this is the reality and this is what sells!
ReplyDeleteMandeep, well said! I will support you in the fact that we cannot generalize on certain regional attitudes. Especially today. North Indian men, I do agree, have a "reputation" when it comes to women (read: eve teasing, molestation, looking down at the fairer sex etc) but then, having lived in the South for a good many years, I came to know that there are pockets where women feel definitely unsafe! My friend, who incidentally is a Keralite herself, vouches for the fact that girls cannot move freely in Kochi,which is deep South, and presumably is so very safe. But it is not! There are good and bad everywhere...and one just cannot generalize...it was unfair of that writer to give such a one-sided view of things.
ReplyDeleteThe writer has no business is being fair. It's her opinion and looks like it hit a nerve with few and agreement with few.
ReplyDeleteThis is what troubles me the most. Blogs have been around forever. We, especially, the Spacers know about how vitriolic or mundane stuff shows up on blogs. I am just worried about this sudden focus on people's freedom of expression (in way of blogs or on youtube) is now being used to CREATE news.
Leave her to her opinions, I say. Obviously people can't. And that's a problem everywhere now.
The fun part was the original blog post was Not meant to be a southerners take on northerners. It was about 1 specific northerner...maybe the guy she was seeing :)
ReplyDeleteBut yes, we need to have enough diversity in our offices and around us so we can realize the truth and work together instead of against each other :)
@ Divoo : i too disliked it alot she was a mean %^^&* .. but wanted to keep thepost clean :P
ReplyDelete@ geebs : Is she puts up a post and makes it public, the sole intenstion is that people read it and present their opinions as well, if it was her personal opinion and her personal views she should have been kept in her diary by her bed side lamp.