Is Regionalism Stupid?
It’ll be a better world when we quit being fools about some mildewed town or ten acres of swampland just because we happened to be born there.
--- O Henry in A Cosmopolite in Café
Well said! Some of us would exclaim, and you might add, "Would somebody explain this to the Chinese, Kashmiris, Marathis, Tamilians, Assamese… a list, which if you really get down to make in all honesty, would inevitably include you as well.
With Internet getting popular, everyone agreed, how indeed the world has become smaller. In fact it became so small that we are now too close for comfort. Divisive forces, fundamentalists of all sorts including regionalists are using Internet to brag about themselves and hurling all sorts of abuse at those who remotely smell of a bias towards their region or religion.
Punjabis are busy listing their virtues and squabbling with Bengalis over who contributed the most freedom fighters.
“Amitabh is a nobody! Rajnikanth is the best,” cries a comment on a news item about Sharukh khan’s latest ad.
Any accident, arson, murder occurring in a particular region is likely to be attributed to the characteristics of that region by bloggers of the opposite region. For example, one comment on the Arushi murder case, began like these, “Why do north Indians employ so many servants...?” and vice versa for all corresponding cases and current affairs regarding south-Indians.
All this makes you agree with Kipling who verses to the effect - there is pride and rivalry between the cities of the earth and that ‘the men that breed from them, they traffic up and down, but cling to their cities’ hem as a child to the mother’s gown.’ Wonder how Kipling knew about internet traffic at that time?!
Religion, as we all know too well, has its share of clingers too. I once met a Muslim blogger at Sulekha who advocated cosmopolitanism for all Indians, but after a few mild provocations, he went completely laa-dee-dah about how Islam was a superior religion to all. Another Muslim I know has done all that is forbidden in Islam and but once when someone said something mischievous about the four-wife rule, there he was, all sleeves rolled up and fists tightened.
I guess religion and region are things that one may not believe in or live in but still call one’s own.
As for me, I am dually regionalistic because though I belong to state Kerala I was brought up in Delhi and therefore have two places to brag about. And I do it with equal fervour whenever I am in the opposite region.
Why should I think regionalism to be stupid then? Because, all said and done, in today’s world, where your 10 acres of swampland could very well get swept by Tsunami or some such unpredictable natural calamity, it may be wiser to be a true cosmopolite.
In any case, stupid or not, regionalism is as inevitable and easy to come by as human distrust and self-pride. It may be wrong but it is there.
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It seems to me that you are the kind of person who just loves talking and doesnt listen. Frankly this is very irritating. Learn to understand and appreciate what others say. Mind percieves something as terrible and allows heart to emote accordingly. To many people if that terrible thing has happened to someone who deserves it, they may not emote with the same shock because mind tells them that the person is not worth the sympathy.
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Eye is the most powerful of all sense organs...but.. you still cannot listen to music with your eyes....
we need different sensory organs to perceive different things in life....mind is exellent in assessing all the tangible factors....but..it fails miserably to perceive the intangibles....that is where the heart comes in...
when thousands of lives are lost in an earthquake...mind captures in details the amount of lives lost..the number of houses damaged...but..it cannot assess the amount of sorrow generated into the people who suffered the loss...that is again where the heart has to come in...
maam..if mind could control everything..then there would not be anything called a 'heartache'...
...few people realise...that its not only 'heart'..but even 'mind' does not have any specific location in the human body...and i've not even brought in 'soul' so far....its amazing!
mystics say....the mind thinks......the heart feels.....the soul knows.
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Very romantic of you.
But seriously speaking this is yet another misconception. Mind is the home of conscience - it tells you what is right or wrong. An uncontrolled mind will direct the heart to seek gratification by right means or wrong. hmm... deserves another blog and this is the second time I got an inspiration for a blog from my discussions with you. Wait for the blogs, friend!
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ha!ha!..mind is the big daddy which tells you to be successful and secured..
.and..
..heart is the small fellow who whispers you to fall in love..!..
happy friendship day maam!
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Heart is nothing but a tool that mind uses to physically manifest the things it interprets...
Give up, you'll never get it.
Thanks for your comment.
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Minds collide..only hearts meet...
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WARNING: Anybody (like munir akram and seeth raghavan) who tries to take over my comment space for following their own agenda will be gagged and anhilated by blocking and deletion. I am a bigger devil than all the terrorists of India put together so don't you dare lock horns with me.
This was in reference with some comments from the above mentioned bloggers that have been deleted and blocked. All others remain welcome!
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Thanks flimflam! I often use blogs to demonstrate my storywriting skills and seek review and comments for the same but I would say many people also use blogs as a kind of diary, where they record their feelings and experiences and share it with others. So it may appear muddled to you; often human minds work like that. This blog was such an article as it came straight from my heart and my mind. I did not expect it to be featured or attract so much attention. Whatever I have wrote here is based on my experience so far in my life, and not from what my parents or teachers taught me and I definetely know what it is all about, which is enough for me at this point. I may revisit this blog 10 years from now on with inputs that make it more defined or rewrite it altogether.
You are right that I have not covered negative traits of regionIism very much and that is because it could become very offensive if I link negative and positive traits with the different regions i have observed.
I don't think u got 1 and 2 ideas from my blog but rather from my comments. I don't have a preference for Punjabi culture but certain punjabi people I met and certain positive elements of their culture helped me a lot in improving the paranoid life I was leading. But at the same time I have also been greatly influenced by my genius mallu husband, a few cosmopolitan bengali friends and UPites. I know that without all these people and thier influencing attitudes, I would have been a very arrogant, aggressive and paranoid person that i was originally. But on the other hand, contact with just one of these types would not have made me the successful, happy and contended person that i am now in personal, professional and social life. Of course, there are other spiritual/religious ways to bring about such a change in a human, but in my case cosmopolitanism has been the reason and I 'll harp on it as much as I can.
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at first reading, your blog sounded muddled, pointless, and contradictory; you suggest that regionalism may be "stupid," then say that it's part of human nature, and that you yourself are dually regional. moreover, you never told us what about regional affinities irks you, why you value "national unity," or why regionalism is a form of fundamentalism.
my most generous thoughts about your blog were that:
1. you have a preference for punjabi culture;
2. you speak hindi fluently.
the first is a personal preference about which i have little to say, and the second is a practical matter; it is useful to be able to speak in and read hindi if one lives in delhi.
my views about your blog changed considerably after i read your responses to readers' comments. i was particularly influenced by your words about the "paaTTi" (grandmother) - clearly a tamilian - who lived in your building, and about your physical appearance which supposedly wouldn't give away your malayali origin.
now, i understand your beliefs and your stance, and have a great deal more to say than 1 and 2 above.
flimflam
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Congratulations, sangu! now you have joined the great and dreaded league of erad, munir akram and one another, who are famous for their false identities as well as hate-all policy.
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