Being a "West" Indian

Of late, I’ve come across many blogs, all written by “South Indians” expressing their angst against “North Indians.”  Most of these blogs express how these north Indians do not know anything about south Indians, their ways and culture, their film stars, and how they make fun of them (which they strictly shouldn’t!!!) and it comes across very strongly as well.  I wonder why only people from south write such blogs – I haven’t really come across any blog post by someone from north writing such a post.  

Anyway, that’s beside the point.  What happens to the people from west (I am from Maharashtra) and east?  We simply get lost in translation.  Northies don’t consider us as north Indians and south Indians think anyone not belonging to the four states (now five, with Telangana in the making) are north Indians.  By the way, this was told to me by my wife (a South Indian) maybe just to make me feel better, so that I don’t feel left out in the fight.  It seems like there are just two directions to our huge country – North and South.  Another aspect of this was anyone who predominantly speaks Hindi was a North Indian. But hey, Maharashtrians speak Marathi predominantly; it’s a different case that we also know how to speak Hindi. That doesn’t make us North Indians or for that matter inconsequential to not to be considered, right?

I came across this problem of mine (of taking sides) when I was in college.  There was this Kannadiga group, Telugu group, Mallu group, Delhi group, Bangla group as well – there was no Marathi group as such.  Two reasons for this;

1. There weren’t as many Marathi people in my college
2. Marathi people aren’t known for making groups. They simply get into one of the above mentioned groups and treat them as theirs.  We are awesome :)

Not that these groups wouldn’t have cross interactions – you obviously know…the bubbling hormones, the break-free for the first time attitude etc.  makes you fall in love with well….mostly people from other groups.  But then, when these whole North Vs South fights used to happen, I used to get so terribly confused as to whom do I support; wanted to support the northies (as I found more logic to their argument) but usually ended up supporting none (have I mentioned my wife is a southie?).

So, I’ll tell you what a west Indian actually thinks.  He (just because I am speaking, not gender-biased) thinks this whole thing is quite silly.  These blogs by southies might mean to be funny and hilarious, but they actually sound really angry and it almost seems like they HATE anyone who isn’t from the five states. There is so much insecurity that comes through their writing that at times I’m happy that they consider me a North Indian (remember my wife cajoled me in believing it!).  Anyway, this isn’t about their blogs.  My confusion about being treated as a North Indian led me to several questions as to why am I being considered as a “northie”;

1. I can speak Hindi as well?
2. The script in which Marathi is written is Devanagari (same as Hindi)? Marathi is also a regional language like Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, or Malayalam, then where’s the problem?
3. Our eating habits are different than that are commonly shared among the four states? Being married to a tamilian, I’ve seen that there isn’t much difference in the customs as such.
4. We do not collectively hate or oppose Hindi as a spoken language?
5. Our language doesn’t have any common words like languages from the four states have?

I tried finding answers to these on my own but I don’t think there’s a perfect answer for these.  Similarly, I also thought as to why a west Indian should be considered inconsequential by northies;

1. Is it because we do not call southies names?
2. Is it because we prefer idli, dosa, and sambar over ghee dripping aloo paranthas?
3. Is it because we don’t think Maharashtra (simply put Mumbai, similar to Delhi) is the be all and end all of the world?
4. Is it because we are just geographically more close to southern India than you are?

I am sure there are no perfect answers to these as well.  People from Maharashtra are called “ghatis” by a lot of people from other states.  By this they mean, people staying on ghats (mountainous region) and hence the word “ghatis.” Fortunately or unfortunately, these ghats or the Sahyadri ranges (that we are very proud of) are located on the western boundary of the state flattening through most of the state (more than a third) to form a part of the huge Deccan plateau. That clearly shows the intellect they possess.  But these things are not be taken to heart, atleast I don’t.  What’s the point in writing all these blogs where you showcase yourself so helpless that others make fun of you instead of enjoying the “funny” blog?

All in all, I don’t wanna say clichéd things like we are Indians first and then whatever! No one is and no one will be.  We are divided by states and so shall we remain. All of us have our own traits and they shall remain with us till the end.  If someone makes fun of it join them, it’s not possible to fight each and every one of them or collectively even (you can’t start a fight at a restaurant if someone says dhosa instead of dosa, right? If you did, you’d just end up making a fool of yourself).