on why I miss North India
I miss north India. And that makes me politically incorrect? Makes me the ultimate desh-drohi/gaddar? Does it look like I care? Good! Now we seem to be on the same wavelength.
So i was saying that i miss north India. Yeah, it is my choice to stay here in Bangalore but c’mon people, I am allowed to miss the region I grew up in.
The smell of winters….I never thought i would say this but i miss the biting cold. You are a witness to the transition between seasons. You don’t have to sit and wonder if it is summers or winters by counting the month that it is.
The food….ohhhh!! the food. I like the idlis, vadas, dosas. But after that what? I have tried the cuisine from all the southern states. Except Telugu food, i have honestly felt disappointed. That could have been a reason why i fell in love with a Telugu, but i think i am digressing here absolutely.
So coming back to food, yeah ….. It is either too bland or sugary or un-impressionable (might not be a word). And to top it all, the people here have got the north Indian food all wrong. The blasphemy of it! The chaats have GRATED CARROTS!!! I mean who puts grated carrots and weird namkeens on dahi puri. The bhel is purely sweet (!!???) and let me not even get started on the samosas. They have fillings of beans and beetroot. To like that is asking too much out of a north-Indian, honestly. The north Indians have never had the guts to add anything else apart from yummy potato filling in the samosa!
I mean have you ever seen ANY restaurant in north India rubbishing your food? Don’t you always find an aloo filling in masala dosa? Or doesn’t the coconut chutney and sambar ALWAYS accompany the idlis……stews with appams….
We do not change your food. We may not get the sambar right every time, but we will not add wrong vegetable to it….yes sir! In go the drumsticks, the brinjals, the tamarind, the toor dal, the pumpkin for the sambar. See we know.
And the people. Now I have met a few nice south Indians. I will even say perhaps the ones i didn’t meet are also very nice. But the operative word is FEW. Most of them have this crazy notion that all the north Indians are out to grab all the jobs, all the land and all of South India. We are here to corrupt the south. We bring with us our rotten mentality, our oily food and what to say of our bang-on-target slangs that involve the mothers and the sisters (yeah! It is ridiculous, you and me know. Tell it to them).
So often I have been ‘told’ impolitely by fellow Bangloreans that I should go back to my ‘gaon‘. Now i have 2 things to say to this—-
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This is my country. You don’t think so that’s your problem. I think so. And so i will go wherever i please.
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My gaon is either the whole of India or Bangalore. I have never stayed in any place for more than 2 years. Go blame my dad for that. He should not have been sitting on the borders of this country in heat and cold trying to save your black asses. The longest that i have stayed is in Bangalore. 4 years. So, on a technicality, it is Bangalore that becomes my gaon.
We may be rude..brash…whatever. But let me tell you, we north Indians are a million times morelarge-hearted people. There is a reason why we have big builds. It is to accommodate that LARGE HEART of ours.
I hate to interject in your blog like this and apologize for that but I would like to add a few thoughts coming from a south Indian’s-Indian side. A few pointers that would definitely need a ‘large North Indian heart’ like yours to ingest:->
1) I am on the opposite site of the fence as yours – a southerner living in North India. I had similar grouses against North Indians for thinking South Indians to be dirty, miserly, weak,….so and so. But now I’ve gotten over it, so for their narrow-minded belief “that all the north Indians are out to grab all the jobs, all the land and all of South India. We are here to corrupt the south. We bring with us our rotten mentality, our oily food” – my piece of advice would be just ignore these views and treat those Bangaloreans as you would your fellow Northies in a north indian town. I do the same here with the northies. Being the daughter of an army officer(am presuming that you are one) it would not be a hard thing for you to do. Its hard to do, but take no prisoners.
2)”trying to save your black ****.” – stereotyping, not all south indians are black or dark. many are, but then many aren’t.
3)”the operative word is FEW” – regionalism is everywhere, case in point, Mumbai where the Shiv Sainiks were out to get the northies, so do you think here too the operative word would be ‘FEW’. Do you think things would be different for a dark short south indian (no fault of him(her) for the features, plus he’s 100% indian) who just moved to say delhi or mumbai (or even worse a small town in UP or Punjab) from a small town in tamilnadu. Would the majority of locals give him(her) a hard time. Would you be one of those or would you be an exception welcoming him to his new home. And think that Indianness comes first. Please think over this and answer yourself honestly. Individual behavior and attitudes coalesce into group characteristics
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4) on points 1 and 2 – Bangalore is as much yours as it is mine, in fact that goes for our entire country of India. So just chill out and enjoy your gaon.
Dear southiewithasmallheart,
1. The reason why I have stuck to Blr inspite of all the frustrating times with some of the un-welcoming people is bcoz I realise that they do not merit attention. Being an army officer’s daughter as you rightly pointed out, , I have grown up with the belief that the country belong to all of us.
2. The statement was a result of utmost frustration becoz some just dun get the point. I dun streotype but some blows demand to be below the belt.
3. I work in a cosmopolitan city where people from the north east are ridiculed rather easily and unfortunately, without a thought. It has happened in my office as well. Does that seem fair? Not at all. That is about as far as I am going with the explanation. Read between the lines. You’ll understand what I am saying.
4. Thanks. Am so loving the city.
hehehe, laughing throughout the post.
love this post, and also the southie’s comments.
Am a soutie myself, but i plead guilty to butchering the north indian cuisine.
I always felt the south indian cuisine is a little over rated (little, and not very), i mean after idly, vada and 10 different types of dosa, all we have is coloured rice.
The sambar almost all taste the same, not saying it is not good, but there is not many options to it.
For someone coming from a small village in Coorg, i understand when you say, you miss the cold weather.
People are pretty much same everywhere, as a North Indian you don’t fancy southies, and your experience say’s most of the southies don’t like the North Indians. So both pretty much the same.
Bangalore today is huge and happening, all thanks to people from outside, not just the North but from all over the country and world.
Hey if everything is nice here, you will not think or miss the region you grew up in. So it is just an attempt to keep you in love with the region you grew up in.
but
Bangalore nali neevu enjoy maadi
haha!! Harsha… what do I say!
and i dun think the southie food is over-rated!
have been here for almost 5 years. That should prove it.
*I love south indian food… avial, appam, the telugu dals, dosas (yumm), bisibelebath, puliogare… love them all! but sometimes all I crave for is authentic northie khana
*winters….. sigh!
*agree about ppl as well…… black sheep every region has.
I love the city. Regardless of whatever I wrote. I love Bangalore