Thoughts A North Indian Gets When Staying In South India

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You might have heard this phrase from a lot of North Indians living in south India - "In north India we get blah-blah...but unfortunately not here." That's a common feeling that runs through almost every North Indian living in south India. But sometimes, it's the other way round too. A north Indian will be amazed to see few things in south India that are virtually absent in the north.

If you have to shift from north to south of India for work or studies, you will face a culture shock that might take days or even months to get adjusted to. Due to differences in culture, lifestyle, weather, people migrating to south from north India find it extremely difficult to co-exist with the local population. Hence, a homesick feeling does crop-up when you are all alone in a new world.

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But some find these changes in the south a big respite from the old and mundane life of their region. Some adventurous people love to explore new terrain. They imbibe a new culture wholeheartedly.
However, some thoughts about the obscurity of living in a place that is "ruthlessly" opposite to the place you lived most of your life in do prick you now and then.

These thoughts deal mostly with cultural and lifestyle changes that a North Indian living in south India witnesses. Let's take a look at them.

“Arreee!! Roti toh yahaan bhi banti hai yaar!!!”:

You can't blame us for having this perception! Years ago you studied in Social Studies that "Rice is our staple food.", but then roti is a staple food too. The major part of North India survives on roti! So don't be surprised if you see rotis are made here as well.

“Seriously, why do you apply coconut oil to your hair?”:

Why god why? Why are there so many coconut trees down south? Do they apply it in their hair just because it can be found aplenty? Let us let you in on a secret. Coconut oil smells horrible and they make your hairs look eeww!

“ I can wear short dresses? Seriously? Wow!!”:

This one is strictly for the girls. Girls who come to stay in South India are surprised, or rather shocked that girls here wear pretty much anything!

“Har weekend pe party?”:

Let us face the fact that parties are mostly family affairs in North India. And party on every weekend, we can only dream about it. But in South India the weekends are meant to be for parties. The party animals are out of their week long office slumber and make their way to private parties, pubs, discotheques, service apartments, you name it, they have done it.

“Kuch bhi kaho par education bohot sahi hai yaar!”:

North India does have some good colleges but there is a reason we throng to the Southern states for higher education. They simply kick arse at it! South India some of the best colleges in the world for any specialization. And the little or lack of absolutely no political connections make it even better.

“Kitne sanskari bacche hain yahaan!!”:

Kids will be kids but how we wish they had at least some mannerisms of their counterparts down South! Comparing is essentially bad but the tantrums kids in North India throw make you wish at times, that they had the values of a South Indian kid. Wishful thinking but we can't help but think about it.

“Arre kaun kaunsi languages sikhoon yaar!”:

In North India if you know Hindi you can find your way through nearly every state. But South India is just another animal entirely! Here you have Telugu , Tamil , Kannada , Malayalam and to make things much complicates tulu, which is an amalgamation of Malayalam and Kannada. So the question is how many languages do we learn?

“Yahaan bhi saare brands hain? Rabba ka laakh laakh shukar hai!”:

A major concern for North Indians is that whether or not South India will have the brands they had back home. But South India surprises us with some of the major brands easily available just as elsewhere. You name it, they got it.

“Inn ke saath rehke toh mein saare gaaliyan bhool jaunga yaar”:

In North India we abuse each other like its raining cats n dogs. Every other sentence ends with a 'gaali'. But then you move to South India and things change drastically. While they have their own set of expletives but they are far subtler than what we use. So we either try to forget the abuses or teach them some new ones.

“Tu Madrasi nahi hai? Phir???”:

One of the worst case of stereotyping is this. Every other person we assume must be a Madrasi! We don't know how it came to that but South Indians are synonymous with 'Madrasi'. It might help you to know that there are Kannadigas from Karnataka, Telugites from Andhra Pradesh, Malayalis from Kerala and the Madrasis from Tamil Nadu [actually called Tamilians].