In Last few days I was reading ‘2 states’ by Chetan Bhagat.In that book you will get a detail description about the culture and people of Chennai city. When I was going through that book my terrible experience of Chennai was flashing out. In January this year I was in Chennai with my family for my dad’s spine surgery. My dad was admitted in the Apollo hospital and my mom was with him. I was going to Apollo hospital from Chennai central in a ‘BUS’. That time I have gone into the bus by front door. I was standing in the middle of the bus then the bus conductor came to me and asked me something in Tamil. As usual I could not figure out what he was saying, first I have told him in English then in Hindi that I don’t know Tamil as I am not from this state and I want to go Apollo hospital, what is the bus fare? But he also cloud not figure out what I was trying to say.
That time I was expecting the same thing what we experience in West Bengal that you can give the fare when the conductor comes to you or you can go to him and give the fare later. After few minutes bus stopped at a stoppage and a cop came to me. He said something in Tamil and signaled me come out of the bus. For five minutes or so he was saying something to me which I could not figure out .In the mean time the bus went away from that place. As that cop was having communication problem with me another cop came to me who could speak in English. He explained me what has happened. According to him I have done a crime and I have to give Rs 500 fine or I have to spend a whole day in jail. The crime is that “in Chennai you have to enter the bus from the back door and while entering you have to give the fare to conductor who is seating right next to the back door”-according to the cop. I have explained him the whole matter that I was about to give the fair and I was having communication problem with the conductor as I am not from this state. I have also told him that I do not know this rule so how could you impose the rule on to me? I had a argue with him for next 10 minutes but he did not agree with me. So I had to give him the fine. This is one mighty dreadful experience of my life because of the communication problem. I think most of us have faced this communication problem when they were in South India.
Thanks.
Awful! Inhumane! The side effects of a cultural and linguistic diversity.
And Yes, thanks for letting us know this!
Ya i can understand what plight you were in… Its really tough to imagine getting messed up with the law and that too for not understanding the local language but i guess the local authorities should have been much polite towards you… but that you can least expect from them too…
Now this also raises my apprehension coz i am about to visit Bangalore even if it has to be for two three days. But i hope my twitter buddies @zoooni and @javeedkibrahim will sail me through… he he jus kidding…
But then at the end if we are proud of India’s diversity, we gotta respect it too… not just in particular states, but all over India… but i dont agree that it should be at the cost of shoving it down your throat… and being completely indifferent to the ‘outsiders’…
this is so bad !! I dont want to be rude to the south indians .. But why dont they try to learn English/Hindi , at least those people who come across different people like bus conductors or shop owners should learn at least english , if not hindi .. They should not forget they are Indian first then south Indian .. even in Hyderabad , i faced such situations .. Its pathetic ..
nice … recently m having writers block ….. its funny at the same time inspiring
Whooaa guys!! I gotta stop you right there.. Its a very common problem which every faces when you travel across our country. So lets not get into any Chennai bashing here.. alryt!!
Abt the rear entry in bus, I am not sure how far it is true. I dont remember such a rule existing when I was in Chennai and I am not aware of any law being enforced even now either. The bus conductor would have expected you to name the place where you wanted to go. Anyway I do know that the bus conductors and the police constables can be very very rude to us but again thats not something specific to Chennai alone.
At the same time, I think its a lil too much to expect the bus conductor and the police constable to speak english or Hindi. They come straight out of their schools ( where the medium of education is Tamil ) to these jobs. I totally feel bad that you had a regrettable experience in Chennai.In this day and age, with so many resources available its upto us to be better prepared before we travel to some place.
Pls give me a tickle if you go down there the next time, I will make sure you have a very pleasant experience 🙂
@ Siddhartha: We myt not be gud in Hindi but i do think south Indians are always gud in english.. well atleast most of us 🙂
Hi Aritra,
I am a Hindi-speaking person living in Bangalore since the last 6 years. I have picked up some Kannada words. I had only traveled to Chennai recently as we went to Pondicherry. Even though people could speak only Tamil ( at restaurants, we had to stop to ask directions), I felt no hostility from anyone. Yes, we would want them to know English but that is hardly possible as pointed out that the level and medium of education of public servants is low. I guess you should have taken the help of some English-speaking Tamilian, that is what I do, find some Kannada-speaking person to help me out. Your experience was unfortunate but let us not label a city, a region or a language bad. And one more thing, Hindi is not the only national language, all Indian languages are national languages constitutionally, so that logic will not work.
I am a Hindi-speaking person whose mother tongue is Hindi before you start jumping to conclusions. Let us show some tolerance in this country is all I say.
My dear frnd. it is such a one kind of common problems of south india…..specially in Tamilnadu and Kerala.
And thanks my friend for letting us know of your deadly experience…….so that we should be aware of that when we will go to the south next time………Thanks