Monday, July 14, 2008
Branded
I am used to being called a 'Madrasi' by many illiterate and uncaring relatives...especially because I grew up in Kerala, and according to their dim thinking, everyone south of Bombay is a 'Madrasi'.
The latest I heard from my mother, who often ends up entertaining relatives travelling on work to Kerala is the following:
Natives of Kerala - Kerlians (I wonder where he got that from!)
And Hold your breath
Natives of Tamil Nadu - Tamil Nadians!!!!!
Gosh... While we espouse the cause of exposing our children to the languages and cultures of the world, wish someone, just someone, would teach my ignorant and self indulgent relatives a bit about South India!
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8 comments:
this has been happening for ages,nothing new in this.
U better teach yr kids the correct words / usage. I know u will.
I am sure you are a Punedian. :-)
Hello Didi! u a keralian, well am a Nadian!! sounds really good, come on! you worry about the people up Mumbai! To tell you something when I joined in my university in hyderabad, there was one guy from andhra, who refered me as a "South Indian" I wondered then what he is, Its a very common thing to be a madrasi in India,,
CHEERS!!!!
Hey Didi...I know and isn't that the pity? My kids will be a lot better off I know!
Hey Arunima... That sounded sooo silly na...??
Hey Barath...Gosh...thats really sad...!!!!
What are you saying about your relatives... my own relatives (Mangaloreans all of them) call my dad's family and us South Indians. And to them, everyone is a Madrasi... kannadiga, telugu, malayalam or tamil speaking. Except them of course!
http://onlineraga.blogspot.com/2007/10/on-road-from-madras-to-south-india.html
Hi Raaga... isn't it amazing how myopic we can be in our views of other parts of our country??? It never ceases to amaze me!!!
i concur with you entirely..i am a north indian..and have been living down south for around 12 years now..when i was in school, i thought the same (every body hailing from south is a Madrasi) but that was out of sheer ignorance..now i know, how wrong i was (but, i actually blame a lot of it on the films as they also addressed ppl from south as Madrasi and usually have those poorly caricatured characters as comic relief.).every time i am travelling home and seeing my relatives i make sure to correct them if they dare generalize the whole south india..and i see that over a period of last several years..things have changed for good.
hey Aroop, Welcome to my blog... And I guess I should also consistently and persistently correct my relatives everytime they falter.
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