SpeAk uP

Learning languages has always been my hobby. I try to pursue it in every possible manner....sometimes formally and other times informally. It somehow gives me a taste of the culture of the people who speak that language. Mumbai as my hometown has always helped me to nurture it.

Mumbai is a metropolitan city and whether you wish it or not you get the flavour of many languages. Come to travel in a local train, u can't escape gujarati stock broker talking excitedly about shares, the quarrels those fishermen/women have with other people in compartment, the "happening" language of college going crowd and probably some hindi film entertainment by the beggars that come...........and these are the factors that I have always enjoyed as a student of language.

Now that its almost an year that I am in Jamshedpur, some differences show up very very prominantly. In Mumbai, the city has got its own language. Some will call it Marathi, some will call it Gujarati and who knows what else. But I will define it as language of Mumbai. I am sure anyone who has spent considerable years in Mumbai will agree with the above statement. And language should not be a barrier in good friendship is what I have learnt.

Then why is it that my this belief is being challenged again and again in last six months or so since I am here in Jamshedpur? Why is it that the groups that have taken shape after an year are predominantly only on the basis of language? Why is it that a tamil guy will be found more than 95 percent of time in tamil company? Why the same thing holds true for people from southern states? Why is it that people from north will always ridicule people from south and vise versa? Why is it that in spite of meeting people from all the southern states south remains confined to "Madrasi" for northern region people? And why is it that in spite of being so much educated, people from south don't even know the basic Hindi, which happens to be our national language? And why is it that so many questions arise although all of us belong to same age group?

For some time now, these are the questions I have been asking myself and still not able to come up with a satisfactory answers. Are our cultures so different that it has taken more than a year to get familiar with each other's culture? (This of course doesn’t hold true in case of food as so many committees keep on hosting their regional food evenings) Also, if we divide Indian geography on X-Y axis, then the resistance by the states to learn about other cultures is maximum on Y axis. Maximum at extremes (exception of Kashmir.....there goes another completely different story). So Delhi on one end and Tamilnadu and Kerala on other. And the resistance by people of states on X axis is minimum with Mumbai on one end and Kolkata on another (North east again is a different story.........also some people will argue saying Bongs are equally eccentric people and are very very region biased......but I have certainly had different experiences......here in XL and also with all the bongs I have known). Of course these again are personal opinions and observations.

Not a very serious issue this, but enough to make my mind wonder thinking about this. Can someone come up with answers to this? And if someone does, then what next??

And this is one more reason why I want some Mumbai air.........................