Well we all know how this South Indian girl's(or should I say Madrasan?) 'Open letter to a Delhi boy' has been causing ripples, nay waves, for the last two days or so. And how it has started this North vs South debate. And the very predictable pointing of fingers and accusations and counter-accusations and the 'They discriminate us' sort of thing. Ah well who am I to gatecrash the party. But then I got things to say. And this is my blog, FYI.
I belong neither to the North nor to the South. I come from that part of the country which many people think is a different country, as foreign as China or Japan. I don't know where I fit in this North-South debate. (By the way what do the East and West do ? Jump into the North vs South ring or form it's very own East vs West fight? ) And I won't be pointing fingers either. My mind is bubbling with thoughts waiting to tumble out though. So here they go.
For one, the wrongest and the commonest crime we commit is to 'generalize' people. Everyone falls prey to this. Including yours truly, of course.
We generalize people based on every factor we can come up with(geographical and religious, mostly) and form our own contorted views and perceptions and conclusions and what not and then go out of our way to hate them or love them. In most cases, hate. Don't we know that whether a person is good or bad or loud or sober or stingy or extravagant or whatever it may be does not depend on which part of the country he/she comes from or how he/she looks, dark or fair?? If you don't, then you are the most pitiful person i can think of!
I have South Indian friends. I have North Indian friends. I have Muslim friends. I have Christian friends. I think most of us do. Does it matter where a person is from for him/her to become your friend? All that takes is a certain matching of frequency (as they say) and chance.
And say, you are a North Indian and your sister marries a South Indian guy, would you hate your brother-in-law and your sister's kids because they are South Indians? Sounds ridiculous right? Because it is!
You don't just hate a person because he/she happens to belong to a certain region or religion or looks different.
Having said that, I think at some point of time, we have both fallen to generalizing people and being generalized. I must have done it at times. I am sure. But as things usually go, we tend to forget the bad we do to people. But remember the same bad people do to us. We crib about the wrong being done to us but don't consider the wrong we might be doing. So maybe it's just a matter of tit-for-tat going around.
No one expects me to have a solution, of course. But all i can say is that if we just try to bring down our generalizations, learn a bit of tolerance, bring in a bit of sensitivity to other people's feelings, the world will defintely be a better place to live in.
I belong neither to the North nor to the South. I come from that part of the country which many people think is a different country, as foreign as China or Japan. I don't know where I fit in this North-South debate. (By the way what do the East and West do ? Jump into the North vs South ring or form it's very own East vs West fight? ) And I won't be pointing fingers either. My mind is bubbling with thoughts waiting to tumble out though. So here they go.
For one, the wrongest and the commonest crime we commit is to 'generalize' people. Everyone falls prey to this. Including yours truly, of course.
We generalize people based on every factor we can come up with(geographical and religious, mostly) and form our own contorted views and perceptions and conclusions and what not and then go out of our way to hate them or love them. In most cases, hate. Don't we know that whether a person is good or bad or loud or sober or stingy or extravagant or whatever it may be does not depend on which part of the country he/she comes from or how he/she looks, dark or fair?? If you don't, then you are the most pitiful person i can think of!
I have South Indian friends. I have North Indian friends. I have Muslim friends. I have Christian friends. I think most of us do. Does it matter where a person is from for him/her to become your friend? All that takes is a certain matching of frequency (as they say) and chance.
And say, you are a North Indian and your sister marries a South Indian guy, would you hate your brother-in-law and your sister's kids because they are South Indians? Sounds ridiculous right? Because it is!
You don't just hate a person because he/she happens to belong to a certain region or religion or looks different.
Having said that, I think at some point of time, we have both fallen to generalizing people and being generalized. I must have done it at times. I am sure. But as things usually go, we tend to forget the bad we do to people. But remember the same bad people do to us. We crib about the wrong being done to us but don't consider the wrong we might be doing. So maybe it's just a matter of tit-for-tat going around.
No one expects me to have a solution, of course. But all i can say is that if we just try to bring down our generalizations, learn a bit of tolerance, bring in a bit of sensitivity to other people's feelings, the world will defintely be a better place to live in.
