Stately woes...
I usually reserve my regionalistic fervor against the Naarth and everything Naarth Indian... however the annual pilgrimage to Goa has proved a long standing 'tick' in the back on my mind, that the South ain't all that cool either, specifically Karnataka.
For a while now I'd secretly harbored not-so-nice opinions about B'lore (trust me, my B'lorean buddies who are reading this really don't care, it's part of being Banglorean - to be above everything and everyone!) - under the guise of being tech geeks who read Milan Luthra and other such exotic sounding authors, B'loreans are riddled with a wide range of complex complexes.
Nothing showcases this more than a meander thru the state.
Take for example the fact that all the road signs on the national highway passing thru Karnataka are in Kannada. It's bad enough that most of the places are completely un-pronounceable (Hebbal, Utur...) but to have them written in a script thats just impossible to make sense of is just plain and simple criminal.
This wasn't the only thing that ticked me off - what irked me further, is that I was stopped by two shoddily dressed 'cops' just short of the Maharashtra-Karnataka border and asked for my papers. They refused to converse in Hindi - and I'm dead sure they both knew Marathi. And with all my papers in order, their only issue with me seemed that I didn't know the local language - there were other unfortunate 'catches' like me with them. And the cops seem to revel in yelling at them in Kannada and further perplex the 'outsiders'.
This trip has increasingly confirmed my stand that Maharashtra is just too bloody nice to the teeming unwashed millions who like to make us their home. And in some places their loo.
I've yet to meet a Maharashtrian cop who'll refuse to talk in anything but Marathi, I've yet to see highway signs only in Marathi (yeah, it reads like Hindi... how brilliant!) and am yet to meet someone on the highway who'll feign ignorance at being asked directions in Hindi.
Before this becomes a diatribe against everything non-Maharashtrian, let me also say I do really understand the other side sometimes - like for example in Goa, I can completely understand the Goan disdain for the tourist, or their interpreting all tourists as sheep - an animal born to be fleeced.
One look at the tourists who pour into that beautiful state and you realise why stereotypes are stereotypes.
There's the Mumbai brat pack - for whom Goa is nothing but some sort of massive club with a beachwear dresscode, there's the Naarth Indian (can't avoid them can I?!) for whom Goa poses as some sort of buffet, smorgasbord, if you will, of everything they'd never dream of doing or seeing in their home turf - explains why 6 guys from U.P would cram themselves onto a single beach-lounge chair just to try and ogle at some cleavage, and then there's the gora brigade who all seem to have come to this exotic asian ashram to 'find' themselves.
It's a circus.
Anyways. I'm back. The trip was largely uneventful. We brought in 2008 gorging on some excellent Burmese food.
And most importantly, I managed to avoid bumping into anyone I knew, even remotely.
That's a great new year in Goa!
For a while now I'd secretly harbored not-so-nice opinions about B'lore (trust me, my B'lorean buddies who are reading this really don't care, it's part of being Banglorean - to be above everything and everyone!) - under the guise of being tech geeks who read Milan Luthra and other such exotic sounding authors, B'loreans are riddled with a wide range of complex complexes.
Nothing showcases this more than a meander thru the state.
Take for example the fact that all the road signs on the national highway passing thru Karnataka are in Kannada. It's bad enough that most of the places are completely un-pronounceable (Hebbal, Utur...) but to have them written in a script thats just impossible to make sense of is just plain and simple criminal.
This wasn't the only thing that ticked me off - what irked me further, is that I was stopped by two shoddily dressed 'cops' just short of the Maharashtra-Karnataka border and asked for my papers. They refused to converse in Hindi - and I'm dead sure they both knew Marathi. And with all my papers in order, their only issue with me seemed that I didn't know the local language - there were other unfortunate 'catches' like me with them. And the cops seem to revel in yelling at them in Kannada and further perplex the 'outsiders'.
This trip has increasingly confirmed my stand that Maharashtra is just too bloody nice to the teeming unwashed millions who like to make us their home. And in some places their loo.
I've yet to meet a Maharashtrian cop who'll refuse to talk in anything but Marathi, I've yet to see highway signs only in Marathi (yeah, it reads like Hindi... how brilliant!) and am yet to meet someone on the highway who'll feign ignorance at being asked directions in Hindi.
Before this becomes a diatribe against everything non-Maharashtrian, let me also say I do really understand the other side sometimes - like for example in Goa, I can completely understand the Goan disdain for the tourist, or their interpreting all tourists as sheep - an animal born to be fleeced.
One look at the tourists who pour into that beautiful state and you realise why stereotypes are stereotypes.
There's the Mumbai brat pack - for whom Goa is nothing but some sort of massive club with a beachwear dresscode, there's the Naarth Indian (can't avoid them can I?!) for whom Goa poses as some sort of buffet, smorgasbord, if you will, of everything they'd never dream of doing or seeing in their home turf - explains why 6 guys from U.P would cram themselves onto a single beach-lounge chair just to try and ogle at some cleavage, and then there's the gora brigade who all seem to have come to this exotic asian ashram to 'find' themselves.
It's a circus.
Anyways. I'm back. The trip was largely uneventful. We brought in 2008 gorging on some excellent Burmese food.
And most importantly, I managed to avoid bumping into anyone I knew, even remotely.
That's a great new year in Goa!
posted by Da Flamingo at
9:26 PM
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