I love India – and it’s a cliché!

The other day a friend of mine asked me post lunch what food I had for lunch. Very proudly I said its rajma and chawal (because I had cooked it myself). My friend says “oh! It must be some food from Bengal!”

Was he kidding? Absolutely no, I realized. He definitely had no clue about rajma (and also chawal). Then I realized, he is from Kerala, and that was the first time that he heard of some ‘foreign’ edible (???) object called ‘rajma’!

But I felt bad, not because he doesn’t know about ‘rajma’ but because he knows so much about everything else. He is an authority on Ayan Rand, he has a blog where he discusses about the legal issues in USA on certain specific areas, and debates about spirituality, humanity and other heavily loaded stuff effortlessly.

So, may be I had high expectations of him. May be I expected that perhaps a bright kid like him should have little bigger perspective in life than his daily dose of rice and avyaal.

No, I am not stereotyping. Neither am I trying to point my blunt finger towards a dear friend of mine.

Let me ask a similar and simple question – does any one, up north of the Vindyas, know what are Appams & Idiappams? Frankly, I have been disgusted to see and hear from so many so called ‘educated’ people from the north -‘Woh Madrasi hai, bas idli dosa khata hai’ while talking about say a Telegu or a Kanada or even a Malayalee. My God! - Does any one know that they also exist in Southern India and are not ‘Madrasis’ !!!

Ok! You must be thinking that’s all history. We all know so much about each other. Rite? Wrong!!! Can you tell me how many states are there in North-East India? What are their languages? What are their state capitals?

You know! Great! Then why do you call them ‘Chinkies’ ????


I love my country! I am proud of them! A country where all people living in 4 southern states are called ‘Madrasi’, where we are not ashamed to call our fellow Indians ‘Chinkies’ because of their oriental looks, where a Tamil Brahmin will only give a job to another Tamil Brahmin and not to a Sardar, though the Sardar is more qualified for the job, where we all celebrate with so much enthusiasm the English New Year Day, but have no idea of what a Baishaki, Navabarsha, or Ugadi is!


Oh shit! I must be a crack pot… Don’t I know that India is progressing? And everyone is happily emerged in that euphoria. So why care about a fellow Marathi, a Coorgi, a Kumayuni, a Khasi, or an Asamese? Lets talk China, Germany, Brazil, Russia, EU…. Or simply USA, USA, USA…..