Why do we love to hate???

1^st guy: Eating a dosa??? Do you know kannada?

2^nd guy: No I don’t...

1^st guy: What the hell? How dare you live in Bangalore?

2^nd guy: what has that do with living in Bangalore?

dishum...dooshom...dishum...dooshom...

end of the scene...

Imagine something of this sort happening to you... (dosa has been included as an example)

well wait, this is not any typical Bollywood movie hero and villain fighting each other. This happened a few months back in some food outlet in Bangalore. Some local guys allegedly thrashed a native from the Northeast India for daring to eat Kannada food without knowing to speak Kannada. This is just one of the series of such incidents that keep on cornering the natives from the Northeast. In the above alleged incident a Manipuri guy got beaten. A few days after; two guys from Nagaland were beaten in Gurgaon by some locals with cricket bats and hockey sticks. And the irony of the situation is such incidents keep on doing the rounds in the news for some time with some assurances from the administration that action will be taken and finally are buried alive. Till date I have not been able to find out any possible solid reasoning behind such incidents. Why are our natives targeted? Why are we made to feel like an outsider? Why anyone is in fact targeted and victimised? Are not we enough Indians as you? Just because we look alike the Mongoloid race you have the right to brutally assault us and call us by different names... the people from Bihar are victimised every now and then in Maharashtra and referred to as an outsider in his own country; which is just another feather in the cap. Now if Bengalis begin patenting for example; the roshogolla, or the Ilish  (the Hilsha fish) that it is their birth right to eat fish and you have to know Bengali if you are having fish...Isn’t that hilarious? It is...

Whenever I read about any such news I literally thank God for my physical features because by birth am a Bengali from the north eastern part of India, and I don’t look alike as the people from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland etc. Yes I have that sense of guilt and shame within me for my thoughts but at the end of the day I just cannot help it. Even I had my share of some stupidity that reflects from people’s faces whenever they hear about my native place; Assam. Some are like, does Assam even exist on our map and some are like does Assam exist on this earth or am I from some other planet. Aah wait, you cannot even react because you may be insulted publicly for their ignorance for not knowing the map of India or may be thrashed brutally blah blah... You have to explain patiently that one of the metros; Kolkata which is in West Bengal in the eastern part of India has Assam as one of the neighbouring states of W.B... Then you get an assurance from some uninformed stupid that you are an Indian. The day won’t be far when we will need passport and visa to travel even within our country.  Why it has been so? Why do we love to hate??? Why cannot we love to love? Why there is hatred for anyone and everyone? Love is the one and only feeling that triumphs over all. Learn to love and see the difference, at the end of the day you will sleep peacefully.

Just for reference:

http://www.firstpost.com/india/bangalore-manipuri-student-attacked-for-not-speaking-in-kannada-3-arrested-1757917.html

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/northeast-student-attacked-in-bangalore-allegedly-for-not-speaking-kannada-607174

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/hate-crime-in-delhi-2-northeast-men-attacked/article1-1275955.aspx

The Reminiscence of Mahalaya...

On this auspicious morning of Mahalaya (the coming of Devi Durga on earth), I woke up at 4, following my age old ritual, since the  time I am able to recollect. Yes, since school days it has become a habit to get up around 4 on this morning and listen to the broadcast of All India Radio that was still quite popular during the late 90s...although the use of radio was slowly but gradually coming to a halt after decades and decades of its innumerable usage, from daily news to live commentary of cricket matches, including the immortal broadcast of India's first emphatic world cup win in the 1983 cricket world cup.           Those days tv sets were a rarity and the majority were glued to their radio sets and listening was all could be enjoyed...still there was a different delight, a different excitement to all these. I remember my Bhaiyya (my grandfather) getting up early and exactly on time and gearing up, to listen to the Mahalaya programme, tuning his very possessive Philips radio. And I remember waking up a few minutes after Bhaiyya turned the programme on...Shri Birendra Krishna Bhadra's immortal voice used to give goosebumps, although I could hardly decipher the meaning of the mantras chanted then, but the voice itself used to give jitters and yes it still does...yes with the advent of new technology, devices our daily lives had drastically changed and yes am a part of that change, but  the old charm sometimes seems to be missing. Even today I woke up early and like every year tuned into my tv and viewed several Bangla channels.  But honestly there was something missing and guess what technology came into my rescue. I logged into internet and had my share of the Mahalaya chanted in the eternal voice of the legendary voice of Shri Birendra Krishna Bhadra in you tube...yes may be in today's date using Internet is no big deal but surely a decade ago or so I would never imagined the radio being replaced by You tube to this extent that I would be using this someday to listen to the Mahalaya programme...

"Om Sarvomangallo Shivey Sharvartha Shadikey
Sharney thrambakey gauri narayani nomosthuthey..."