I venture to share some of my thoughts on the way the South Indians mix and react with each other.
I am making observations based on my having covered the length and breadth of India over a period of nearly Thirty nine years.
I have spent my time, while on business tour, in my Dealer’s Homes, partaken their Hospitality.
Before proceeding let me add that , by a North Indian, I mean those people whose mother tongue is not Tamil, Malayalam,Telugu or Kannada.
Some of these people were my business associates, others simple are those whom I met casually, mostly on Trains, Buses, Flights .
Then again there is this difference, those whom I met in their Native place in the North, and those who were settled in the South.
I had a dealer in Bellary, C.G.Dass & Co.
I used to visit the Town once in 45 days ,regularly for a period of over six years.
Right from the second visit, the dealer’s son, Harish, A Guajarati, would come to my Hotel room, pick me up drive me straight to his Home and make me ear.
Then we would go out for a picture, only to return to his Home at the night. Some days I have slept in his house.
One must remember I was just a Salesman, not a big wig to who can grant favours to them.
And my knowledge of Hindi was and is horrible.
Tehn I had a Maharashtrian Friend Ashok Kamle in Adoni, Andhra Pradesh.
This again is a repeat performance of Bellary.
Another is Vasanth at Belgaum, a Guajarati who would not even allow me to check into a Hotel!
I had another friend SriKant Hanchate a Maharashtrian at Gulbarga, who would spend the whole day with me.
On my trips to Delhi, I was forced to stay with my dealer friend, a Punjabi, Harkirat Singh.
He would not have a No from me!
He would take me to Hindu pilgrimage spots.
He had taken me Hardwar,Rishikesh,Kedarnath and Badrinath.
And I had a gentleman whom I met on the Train at night en route to Budh Gaya.
I was on my way, with my wife to Benares,Gaya and Allahabad and the Rajdhani from Delhi was expected to reach Gaya by 3.45 am.
Around Eight when the Dinner was being served a Young man of about 35, took the Dinner Trays from the Waiter’ laid it out in his aisle berth and made sure me and my wife had water by our side.
As my wife was allotted an upper berth, he exchanged his berth later one, without my asking!
I spent some time chatting with him.
In the morning he woke me up at 3.30 am, helped me out with my baggage, assisted my wife in getting down from the Train
He fetched us an auto rickshaw, gave directions to the driver, asking him to drop us at the address, telling him that he should call him as soon as he dropped us and had the driver’s Phone number noted.
After ten minutes or so when we were reaching the destination the driver received a call from this Youngman who checked whether we had reached safely
and chatted with me for a couple of minutes.
Remember it is 4am!
He is local Cable TV operator from Gaya and a journalist.
Next morning he sent a man who introduced himself as an Agent and booked us in a Train to Allahabad.
Wait listed at 300( I never knew WL can run into 300!) I was apprehensive.
The man was waiting at the Train Compartment before we arrived got us a Confirmed seat.
Do you that he refused to accept anything more than Rs 20 as his charge!
I get to meet a lot of my son’s friends who are North Indians working in Bangalore.
The way they mix and the respect they express, I have not seen.
No pretensions, no air,
I tend to believe that by Nature North Indians are very easy-going , with out pretensions and has a tendency to befriend and help people.
However , during my career, I have found that the North Indians clinging together and try to exclude the South Indians from promotions.
I do not know which is real.
Is that I have been lucky in getting to know these wonderful people?
I tend to take the view that by nature they ar easy-going, respectful and friendly.
Alas, the South lags behind in this!
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