Chronicles of Bangalore

Here is one interesting incident happened today, would like to share:

It was a morning better then usual. I had a good sleep, woke up on time. Left for office at usual time- 9:25 AM. Reached bus stop, which is at 5 min walking distance from my house. And I also got the bus on time, only thing it was heavily crowded. But I had to jump in, else I would have got late. There were lots of people standing on the door step, so I wanted to get in (few days back I almost lost my cell phone standing on the door step)

Now here starts the trouble. In my quest to get inside, one person of age about 50, got a push from me. He glared at me with anger. And the glare was effective enough to stop me where I was. He said something in Kannada to which I didn’t replied for the obvious reason that I didn’t understood a bit, as I don’t know Kannada. So I stopped there, very close to this fellow.

As the bus moved ahead, some more jerks and shoulder rubbing with this man and he got really pissed off. He stood very close to me pushing his shoulder against me. This happened for about 15 secs, and he was staring at me time to time. I also looked at him, and he started saying something in Kannada. Which I again didn’t understand for the same obvious reason.

To save some creases on my T-Shirt and knock off the situation I had to say something. But in the last 5 months I have been able to catch only 6-7 words of Kannada. Best way I could think of- speak in English. I said- "Stand on one side, why you standing here".

To which he pointed a finger at me and shouted-
"You talk in Kannada. Why you don’t know Kannada. You living here you should talk in Kannada only. You standing here and pushing me since this long."

I said-
"If you got any push then it was not intentional, this bus is so crowded. But What Kannada has to do with this."

He-
"You should have taken another bus. You should respect Kannada. You people come here and get the shelter and money"

Me-
"I respect Kannada. But I have been here since last 5 months only, how can I understand what you saying." (Truth is, I won’t be able to understand even after several years)

He-
“Take a Kannada teacher, and learn Kannada”

This man was so angry at me that his face was literally shaking. I was wondering if he dies of high BP here, will they sue me on charges of murder.

Now this person was having his friends along with him to whom he was talking in between, in Kannada, in loud voice. I have no clue what they said, but no nice words for me for sure. Obviously bus was full of Kannada knowing people. And this man earned a lot of sympathy by talking to people around us. Since I have been in Mumbai for more then 3 years, I know well how appealing his words would have sounded to the crowd.
3-4 of his friends and other Kannada speaking people around me started shouting at me in Kannada. I felt like a defeated Gladiator in arena, and all the crowd shouting- "KILL KILL KILL" with there thumbs down.

By now I understood the situation around me, and the better sense prevailed in my mind-to stay quiet. A wise man has said- "Stay quiet when you don’t understand anything" (I am not sure if some one has really said that, but you have to admit, it seems to be said by some wise man). I stood silent there for about 1-2 min, with lots of alien words floating around me.

In the mean time a seat got vacant near me, and the person standing next to it offered it to me out of sympathy. But I denied and offered it back to him, as I wanted to talk to this "victorious Gladiator".

I patted him on his back, and asked-
"Suppose your son goes out of Karnataka for a job, and same thing that you did to me, happens to him, what you would say? Will that be right?"

He said (with lots of anger)-
"My son is not like you !!!!"

Me (the usual stubborn me)-
"So much is happening in Australia with Indian students, and we are fighting here over Kannada!!! Is this right?"

And finally there was silence from his side.

However, his friends got up and started shouting at me. Some of them were really very upset, probably they were not able to understand what I said in English.

Finally, on much public demand, I decided to stay quiet. J

I was less surprised (probably cause of Mumbai experience) but more irritated. We as a nation are so divided. We don’t respect each other on the basis of being Indian, language is what prevails most. Actually, we were never a nation. We were a bunch of fighting groups, who didn’t even knew what a Nation is. British came, defeated everyone, occupied everything. We just got back our land from them in the quest of freedom. But people have the same old feelings, they don’t know what is India. They still believe in- Maratha Kingdom, Nizamat of Hyderabad or Kingdom of Mysore.

We don’t deserve any right to raise concern for Indians abroad. We are doing it in our own house, why to point finger at others?

Anyways, don’t know why, but I enjoyed every bit of the experience. JJJ
Although, my morning was spoiled.