The Need for Co-existence

Location: Avon Restaurant, Hosur Road, Koramangala

Time: 1 P.M.

Me: I’ll have one egg biriyani.

Friend 1, 2 & 3: We’ll have chicken biriyani.

Waiter: Ok, sir. 15 minutes.

[I should mention here that Friend 3 loves poking fun at random people in general, but also has a history of finding himself at the receiving end unexpectedly at times.]

Friend 3 (to tease the waiter): Aeeiinn.. Thoda ulli.. Illa illa.. Adhu enna da solvaanga?

Friend 1: Pyaaz.

Friend 3 (in broken Hindi): Aan! Pyaaz. Thoda pyaaz leke aao, bhai.

Waiter: Aen avlo kashta padreenga? Vengaayam-ne sollunga. [Why do you have to struggle so much? Just ask for vengaayam. (the Tamil word for onion)]

Me, Friend 1 & 2: Hahahahahahhahahahahahahhhahahha.. Bouuuuuu!!! [The same “bowwu” Dhanush uses in Why This Kolaveri Di song]

Friend 3: *awkward silence and sheepish looks*

Now, the reply (from the waiter) wouldn’t have caused embarrassment if it had come from a Tamilian. Not even if it were from a Telugu, Kannadiga or a Malayalee. But the fact that it was from a North-East person is what took us all by surprise, and made us roar with laughter the moment the sentence ended.

Further enquiry revealed that the waiter had worked in Tirupur for a few years before moving to Bengaluru, and that’s where he learnt Tamil. We were amazed by his proficiency in the language in that there was not a hint of non-native accent in his speech. He sounded very much like a native Tamilian. Unlike people who move to different cities to earn a livelihood and stubbornly refuse to learn the local language—and it’s a well-known fact that there are SO MANY such people in Bengaluru—this man made the effort to learn Tamil when he was in Tirupur, and made sure he’s a decent speaker.

There are definitely more such industrious NE people in our cities. Those whom I’ve interacted with so far have always been respectful and well-mannered. And, as their fellow citizens, we must treat them as our equals, and not as outsiders.

Now, there are some important facts about the North-Eastern states we must all know before we discriminate against people who come from there. I’m just using a couple of examples related to Assam here.

With an annual yield of 6,80,400 kg, Assam is the world’s largest tea-growing region. So the probability of your daily dose of tea—be it at home or at the tea stall—being made of leaves plucked in Assam is very high. Also, note that some tea stalls are run by Malayalees, which means the cup of tea is a symbol of national integration in itself.

Also, Assam is the hometown of India’s oldest refinery, the Digboi refinery which was commissioned in 1901. This refinery belongs to the state-owned oil company – IndianOil. There are two more refineries in Assam, one at Guwahati, and one at Bongaigaon. Again, there’s a probability of the fuel you fill in an IndianOil pump to be a produce of Assam. There is also the possibility of the Indane LPG cylinder you use at home for cooking being a produce of Assam.

Of course, IndianOil does have refineries at other states, and there is a possibility of our using the produce of those as well. That’s the level of dependency we find in our day-to-day life—a very important reason for co-existence.

Just imagine if the people of Assam try to create an indirect embargo on tea and petroleum trade to different parts of the country. It’d for sure affect normalcy throughout. The other states that supply their goods to the North-Eastern states can avenge for this through another embargo from their side. But it’ll never be of any use to anyone. The day we realize that we’re dependent on so many people for so many things in our life, and be thankful for what we get from them is the day we lay the foundation for growth.

We welcome the North-East monsoons wholeheartedly, but treat North-East manushans (people) in a very ugly way.

It’s time for us to change.

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Image courtesy: http://loveme4evers.wordpress.com/