Sunday, July 13, 2008

Indian Curry

Whatever I am writing is my perception of Indians based on various encounters with different type of people. I am privileged to have friends in all parts of India.

East India

Bengali

80% bongs would have name starting with S, D or A
An average bengoli sings better than best of India
Smoking is a symbol of manhood ( or whatever, if you are bong, you gotta smoke)
You can get diabetic just by seeing them eating sweets
Bongs play safe. They are always worried about the train, plane reservation and would be the first one to reserve things in any aspect of life. They believe else it would be over.
If a Bong has just enough to fill his tummy and he still shares it with you whole heartedly, he is a true friend of yours.
People believe that bongs are not trustworthy “ I refute”
Females are dominant in bongs. Children are closer to mother than father. Females rule house.
Bongs are a very awkward body shape generally ( leave Bipasha Basu and other exceptions alone)
Bongs are excellent in arts and literature but does not have heart for business generally.
Bongs have very weird pet name, “tubai” for instance

Biharis
No respect for law. Everything can be bought
Intelligent to the core. But Mind work bothways constructive as well as destructive.

Oriya
Amazing culinary skills


West India

Marathis

Langoor ke muh me angoor applies well. 70%+ cases female would be more graceful in a couple
Tailors are obsessed with saving clothe. Most of the trousers would be short by 1 inch atleast.
They would study in a small college in chandrapur but wont go any other state, given a chance in a NIT . For most of them at most pune or mumbai is the end of India. For anything, Maharashtra is a end of India for most of them.
Unknown to India mine of beautiful ladies in and around kolhapur region. ( I saw one of the most beautiful female in kolhapur few years back)
Brinjal is one of the very common dish in marriages :-(
There are 2 types of Marathis

1.Learned, cooperative, appreciates art
2.Yede types, cranky

Gujratis

India's Saas Bahu viewership answer to Bold and beautiful viewers.
Undoubtedly, very high risk appetite
Gujjus mind works in all unpredictable ways to find out a workaround for any problem
Gujju's taste buds are mysterious. One end they love spicy food, on the other side they put sweet in many dishes.
If a Gujju spend a money on you genuinely, he is not a gujju.
They buy english news paper only to see rates of shares .Now a days they are glued to bottom most strip of television set
A strong community bonding

North India

Punjabis

Very happy go lucky culture
Pretentious to the heights. They can compromise on quality of life in trying to show other what they do not possess.
One definitely enjoy their company
somebody rightly said, 3 stages in punjabi female's life : baby, babe and baybay
They do not fear anything and can be found anywhere on earth

Hariyanvi

They believe in saying spade a spade, though it might not be required or might cause embarrassment
believe is not wasting mind so it remains untouched at times.
lively

UP

50% have traits to become politician. ( good density near Lucknow area)
No Dish is complete without Aloo and everything has to be fried.
They enjoys breaking rules.
Respect in language is paramount ( ji, Aap)
One person follows certain formula to become successful and everybody else follows it ( this tendency is higher comparatively)

South India
90%+ of Hindus would have name of God in their name

Tamils

Most conservative in India
Culture oriented
Hardworking job oriented
Only one word for good, great, excellent, marvellous and i.e. Super
They love watching age old chennai pics more than photo of a babe ( especially people from chennai)

Telugu

Most happening types in south India
Dowry is rampant
If you have not gone to a foreign country , you do not deserve to be called a successful telugu

Mallus
Rational to the extent that defeats pragmatism
Get along well with other people
Gulf may change its name of Kerala-Gulf soon

Kanadigas
A very balanced view
Cooperative and sensible

Though I have a long list of things to write about kashmiris, Chinkis ( North east) and rajisthanis and others but it could be biased as the set is small.

Anshu + Marriage + Orissa + ...............................

While coming back from Anshu's wedding, we took a flight from Bhuvneshwer. Flight was at 10:40 AM. Now reaching airport is a pain as it takes 6-7 hours from Sambhalpur . We got a cab and started by 12:30. Punit was not in best of his health and his tummy was responding back to his gulping of countless samosas on the way to sambhalpur. Me and Ravi decided to sit next to driver alternatively, to keep him awake. I sat next to our man and exhausted all my possible list of topics to talk to him. last line of every answer would be "this is a maoist area". Though, We did not have any intention to scare maoists :-) , we were concerned for their problems. It was most boring journey, I was trying to keep myself awake and managed till early morning. Whole trip was like a flashback in my mind " train to jhasguda, playing cards, eating countless samosas, then playing again, sleeping, typical train journey, way to sambhalpur, anshu his family all rituals, a short trip to hirakund dam, dancing in the baraat, sudeepta and a loads of other things.


Morning their was a road strike and it was important for us to reach airport before 7 and we reached without any untoward incident. One thing we all wondered is the list of people not requiring security check. This list had a name of Robert Vadera. I do not understand who the hell he is to have that privilege. Ravi captured it well.

One incident I can't forget. I ordered water and the waiter got butter to our room. We had a good laugh over it. Many short stories of that trip in my mind, Some other time.

We were very careful in not calling him Anshu. Once, one of my friend called up Pankaj Lal. His dad picked up and this guy said" Uncle, Lal se baat karni hai" and uncle replied " Beta humare yahan sab lal hi hain kiss lal se baat karni hai :-)"

Ravi had a different perception of Orissa. He had seen a lot of oriyya workers in Surat textile mills. So he thought of Orissa as a very very backward place. while it is not that backward as the perception of Indians are. Only thing i can say is that we think in extremes most of the times. I would say that people migrate for better opportunities but it does not mean that they do not have opportunity at home at all. It is a choice they make and they pay a price for it.