Do you speak Hindu?
2006 June 10
My mother-in-law arrived in London from India yesterday, on a BA flight. The chief stewardess announced that there were staff on board who spoke “Hindu”; Hopefully, they spoke Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist as well. But was just thinking Indians do it with other Indians too, insisting, for example, on asking if my husband speaks Malayali. No, he does not speak Malayali. Whether he speaks Malayalam is a different matter.
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Sad and funny at the same time. I once had the misfortune of explaining to a French man why India is beyond imagination when it comes to unity and diversity of cultures, religions and languages.
These are misguided attempts at making us feel more at home.I guess the airline staff was trying her hardest to be personable.The thing is no amount of corporate training in the world can erase basic ignorance.
Hinduistically yours,
Weedwanderer
I remember being asked by one of my profs if I was from ‘Malayalam’.
After blinking for a few seconds(shock, you see)I patiently explained that Malayalam was a language and not a place.
Atleast he pronouced ‘Malayalam’ properly.
Its sad but again its quite funny!
Imagine if you were Muslim…
Dadoji-Give him The Argumentative Indian to read.
Weed Wanderer-I don’t think they cared about making people feel more at home. They were pretty rude for the most part.
Megha-thank god for small mercies. But then some Indians have asked me if my husband is “Malayalam”.
Confused-the ignorance remains there too. They may not say that people “speak” Muslim. But the other day I was in the park and some cyclists passed and screamed “bloody Arabians” at some Bangladeshis.
So, if you dont speak hindu or hindi – what do you speak then?
Potpurri-don’t really understand you. How can anyone speak “Hindu?” I speak Hindi.
i agree! its one of my biggest irritants! people who know i am christian want to know how i can be half tamilian and half bengali yet be a christian. my brother was asked by someone on the train in the USA, where he came from. when he replied, India, the guy asked him, so you must speak Indonesian?
why and how is the world full of so many ppl ignorant and unaware of the world they live in?
Mad Momma, I find myself explaining to people that there are a lot of Christians in India-in fact some of the oldest Christian communities in the world!
people ask where i am from and i say “new jersey” (where i was born and raised) or “washington (state)” where i live now. i don’t say america because i know that non-US americans hate that this country claims “america” as if it were its own.
let’s see, buddhists speak pali, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, mongolian, and now english (like me!!) and various other indoeuropean languages. christians speak nearly every world language as about 1 in 3 people call themselves christian. muslims’ holy language is traditional arabian as it is in the qur’an, but in the streets they speak whatever is the native toungue.
last i checked, people of indian decent spoke kashmiri, benglay (is that spelled right) near kolkata, punjabi (I know a few old friends from the punjab region who spoke it), and a gazillion others that unfortunately i am unaware of besides hindi. the webpage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_languages_of_India tells of the official languages recognised by the indian government, besides hindi and english.
plus, last i checked, indonesia are a bunch of islands off southeast asia in the PACIFIC OCEAN. its not the subcontinent!!
plusm where is Malayalam spoken? just curious.
Tazo, I think you are reffering to Bengali. Heh, I haven’t heard anyone ask “do you speak Buddhist?”, but it would be funny if they did!
Malayalam is spoken in Kerala (a southern state of India) and by Malayalis (i.e. people who are from Kerala otherwises known as Keralites and Keralans!).
it is also called bengali, but like kolkota, which was formerlly calcutta in english as iremember, i heard that “benglay” is preferred to “bengali” nowadays. if i am wrong, correct me.
and thanks for the info on malayalam.
Tazo, have no idea on “benglay.” It’s also known as Bangla.
ok, spelt it wrong then. sorry!!!
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Was once asked if I was a “Canary”.(Kannadigas are called Canarase,by few people for reasons best known only to them). Was very tempted to say, “No , I’m a parrot”.”