Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Madrasi ...!!

"Are Yaar Madrasi log will know English and Hindi but when a north Indian visits chennai they say Hindi Nahi Maloom "."Man no hard feelings but chennai sucks , the auto walahs are real horrible , my GF lives in a flat in Chennai and the house owner says no cooking Non Veg in the entire Complex ..Common dude you must be Kidding imposing rules on what one should do in their own house ".Every place I go with my GF every one gazes me , from an young guy to elderly people ,Whats their problem in life ??".Theese are the some of the stuff my north Indian friends had to say.

I hear a lot of statements like above .But every chennaite is proud of his city his culture and doesn't find a problem Living there .

Is Chennai a city that can sustain cosmopolitan crowd , people from different countries , for the matter non - Tamil speaking Indians .Thinking about it rationally I have my doubts .We are so rich in Culture and heritage ,but is it easy for tourists to travel and visit Tamil Nadu ? may be not.

Being a pivot of Industrial development in the sectors of Automobile and IT , Chennai , the corridor to Tamil Nadu needs a make over .We are proud of what we are, our tradition ,our culture but that should not stop us from being open to changes and development .Starting from the Airport , transport , Roads , Police we need to improve and make life conducive for visitors .We need to remodel the society in such a way that by only speaking English a person can lead a normal life in Tamil Nadu.
We need not change our roots , but we can accept constructive improvements .

Lets Hope that as we step into a new millenium we grow as a society which is corruption free and visitor friendly .

14 comments:

Lavanya said...

//We need to remodel the society in such a way that by only speaking English a person can lead a normal life in Tamil Nadu.//

Bang on! Not just English but Hindi too. Afterall its our Rashtriya Basha. Whatever said and done, Chennai is home - the feet may leave home but never the heart:-)

Da Rodent said...

Hmm., man.. during my goa trip., we found it so fckin hard to find a room to stay in the night because there was a girl with us., who happens to be the sis of a friend who was also travelling. It was such a pain/frustration/*.. Well., so it may not be just chennai. Its there in karnataka., maybe in some parts of north too (bihar??)

Smugam said...

@@lavanya

We need to Overcome the language barrier

@@Joe

We are the best IT destination , culturally rich , identified as the best state in India for FDI .We need to focus on growing even further and become the Ideal State

Gladtomeetin said...

Agreed Fully...we need to grow as a Society, have a better outlook and should be able to accept people and changes !

Lets Hope for Change and let it Change for the best :-))

Smugam said...

@@dba

Dei not my GF ..da thats what my friends had to say when he went to chennai .I am not saying others are perfect but we can always improove.

cutefreaky said...

well am too proud to call myself a "madrasi"... we accept and adept to things when we travel places.. n y not the ppl who visit us.. try to do the same to chennaiites?????

"when u r in rome.. be a roman"... same way.. when u visit chennai.. be a chennaiite... As u have also pointed out.. ppl who have been born n brought up in chennai do not have a problem being thr... but shld others complaint??

tata
sukku

Smugam said...

@sukku

The world is growing faster than you think , we need to forget regional boundaries and be open to ideas and be accomodating .We need to put tamil nadu in the direction of prosperity and the diaspora tamil crowd has the power and the ability to do it .

Nautilus said...

My sister lived in Chennai sometime back. She took a flat in the posh Adyar locality hoping to find cosmopolitan crowd. Much to her dismay she had to master the art of pantomime for the next year! Language was a HUGE problem!!! Last year I went back to Chennai after almost 9 years...it still hasn't changed. The tourist taxi driver couldn't speak anything but Tamil!!! That was extremely frustrating to say the least!

Also, I'd like to disagree with dr_dba. Dude, which part of Hyd are you in? Are you trying to say Hindi movies are released in Hyd later than other parts of the country? Also Blr and Hyd are two most Hindi friendly cities in South India I've been to ( and I've travelled pretty extensivley in the south!). Agreed, when you go to Italy you don't speak German...what do you speak then? English I presume! Same way, when you go to any where in India you either speak English or Hindi.

Shivshankar, good blog...keep it up :-)

Celia said...

Yeah!! as dba says, theres lot more better things that ought to be done.. than this!!!..

And these stuff will improve as time goes by!

Smugam said...

@@nautilus

Thanks for dropping in .

@@Bindhu

Lot of things can be done but the firs step towards improovement is realization that we need to improove .

Shiv said...

Yeah...there are umpteen things that need to be changed in this city..but we all like the city for wat it is..

Om said...

//Bang on! Not just English but Hindi too. Afterall its our Rashtriya Basha//

Lavanya, India has no National lang or rashtrya bhasha...read this:

part XVII of the constitution:
defines OFFICIAL language (NOT national lang)
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17.html

Article 345: This gives the State govt., power to decide its own "OFFICIAL LANGUAGE"
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17345.html

Article 343: This defines hindi and english to be the "OFFICIAL LANGUAGES" of union govt.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17343.html


DIFFERENCE:

NATIONAL LANGUAGE: defines the people of the nation, culture, history.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: used for official communication

While a National language by default can become the Official langauge, an Official language has to be APPROVED legally to become the National language.

India has NO NATIONAL LANGUAGES ONLY 23 OFFICIAL languages

Om said...

//The world is growing faster than you think , we need to forget regional boundaries and be open to ideas and be accomodating .//

ellaam serithaan, but why should 70 million stop speaking a language for a few thousands who come to TN.

They come to TN for their education/job - its their duty to learn the language and adapt to the region.

One question, I've seen quite a few blogs cribbing and ranting about Chennai and TN/Tamil - but I fail to see even one Tamil blog that rants about the north indians NOT speaking Tamil or being too "open" - when we can adapt without cribbing, why cant they ???

Om said...

//Same way, when you go to any where in India you either speak English or Hindi.//

Nautilus, your analogy about Italy was kinda okay but your inference was bad.

India aint a country of one language - Tamil Nadu alone can be considered a seperate country based on its population/history/area - almost similar to France.

When you come to TN, learn Tamil and dont expect others to speak an alien language to make your life comfortable.

When quite a few north indians/non-tamils know that hindi aint feasible in TN, they have to make an effort to learn Tamil instead of cribbing. Your sister could have helped herself by trying to learn a few words of Tamil instead of pantomime.

Regards !