It’s all Very calm and quiet.(so, unlike my mind for the last 2-3 days). Most of them in the floor are already asleep. From room no.24, I am writing another blog. (Don’t be scared, no controversies this time.) this is not just a blog, but an Apology. Yes, I need to apologize to the people who got hurt by my previous post
Specifically speaking, my intention was not to hurt people but to get a message across to all and start a healthy discussion on this issue, which many feel but don’t talk openly. After that blog got posted, many came to me and said:”Dude, good job”, some openly supported me when people were criticizing me. Others chose to be on the safe side, by saying that without getting into anyone’s attention. Nevertheless, I didn’t felt great when they did that, but yeah each criticism (even the harshest ones) and each support equally meant something to me. Thanks for both.
In the process of writing, my idiotic mind generated some kind of language that appeared to be offensive. Also, it ended up targeting people from just one particular community or to say a particular part of a country which is linguistically and culturally different from where I come from.
The reasons why I ended up writing that blog were—-
- Start a discussion on a very important issue of how language barriers are actually hampering many of the communication processes.
- Get things out for everyone to see as to what I think about an issue, instead of keeping it close to my chest.
- That left out feeling you get when people start talking in a particular language, which you don’t understand, culminating into weird mood sequences.
- Getting the feeling that people don’t want you to be part of their conversation because of some differences.
- Trying to make people understand, how a little empathy can go a long way in solving it out very easily.
Lesson learnt it’s not just about the message; it’s how well you convey the same.
What the blog actually ended up doing was
1. It got directed to particular communities because of direct use of names. Instead, I could have generalized as this, as it isn’t limited to one. Like one community may be at the receiving end of this barrier, but may also be the one doing that as well. Sometimes, even Hindi speaking people may do that with the non-Hindi ones.
2. It created a feeling that there is a certain sense of hatred in me regarding a certain community. Well, I can sense that many might have started feeling like this.(instead of smiles, I get that “WTF-were-you- thinking-when-you-wrote-that-look). I never intended to justify, but to keep things in clear perspective, I should say.
Some of the very good friends, including my two roomies, which I have made after coming here, are the ones who are from down south. All my grief, homesickness, sad stories(which are way too sad :P, sadder than this)are only subjected to their ears only. Since I’m on a convincing spree to show-off my south-connect, I would also like to “brag” that my grandfather was actually a south Indian, quite fluent in at least two Dravidian languages. For some strange reasons, people who have some connection with south India and live in the Hindi-heartland tend to be known as “madraasis” (a little crazy, I understand) mainly because of the food preferences and ingredients that they use (like tamarind). (I am bragging too much. Right? 🙂 )
3. Someone mentioned stereotyping. Was I?? Don’t many do that while talking here in groups?? But yes, I only took into account the people from the college whom I saw and included the whole south Indian community all into it.
4. Posting a sensitive content on the web. With a place like India, with diverse cultures and rich heritage, people have their sentiments attached with everything from language to religion and region. Maybe, the way it was all written appeared to be accusing that attachment they had and also raising the sensitivity of the people. The web is becoming a place where one should be careful enough as to what they speak. I wasn’t Maybe something that would hurt me might get the same amount of criticism that I received or even more than that.
I don’t know whether you people will even read this blog, going by the fact that blogging and my name would be negatively subconscious-ed into your mind based on my last post. But, if you are reading then I would like to just say, when I talked about south Indians starting to being more empathetic, I forgot the fact that I wasn’t actually being one.
As someone mentioned to me that maybe because I didn’t tried enough to be someone important, for whom anyone can “switch” to any language that I understand. May be some introvert-ness, some “opening-up” that is still necessary. Or instead, I should try actually learning any of the languages 🙂 I should be the one making the change, if I want to make something happen and not complain to others about not doing that. So, cheers. Let’s kick this controversy out, podaaa :). (Oops, i Did it Again 🙂 )