Congenial

Recently I read a book “If god was a banker” written by an IIM alumni working in a big company. The thing that struck me most was all the villains in the book were north Indian and all the heroes south Indians. Of course the author is a Tamil. I have noticed south Indians, tamilians in particular, holds grudge against north Indian. I have never met any tamilians who don’t hate north Indian until and unless they have some sort of profit motive.

Somehow we are ourselves to blame for that also. We always point negative things about us. “Roads are not good”, “Politicians are corrupt”, “People try to cheat”, “People are illiterate” and the list goes on. We always point towards the bad things about ourselves in front of others to look good. In turn we ruin our reputation. While I was coming back to my hometown during chhath puja most common topic of discussion was Bihar bashing. Surprisingly everyone was Bihari there.  Of course we do have problems but where problems don’t exist. We should try to find the solutions to the problems. The criticisms should be constructive. Because of these reasons the South Indians consider themselves superior from North Indians.

Recently one south Indian lady asked me if it’s true that people in Bihar always keep guns with them and keeps shooting each other on way. One another guy asked me not to go to Bihar during Diwali because under cover of fireworks people will shoot each other. This might seems ridiculous to hear but people have such bad impressions about us.

There are some major differences. While I was going to my hometown the auto in Cochin charged me Rs. 135 from my home to the railway station. And while coming back almost for the same distance I was charged Rs. 7 in Muzaffarpur. Of course it was shared auto. But still the profit margin is too high in Cochin and we pay happily.  System has been made in South India to overcharge and nobody says anything.

Autos in Chennai are considered to be the most notorious for cheating but never anyone points towards it. If the auto charges Rs. 10 instead of 7 in North India they will make hue and cry for it. And the same person will happily pays Rs. 100 for the same distance at other places.

A lot depends on our mindset. We need to look ourselves. If we have positive attitude and good things will follow.