NAMASTE INDIA

 

I was over and done with my recent blog on “Two India’s” that compromised on economic division of North and South India but I was not contented for what I had written, there is a need to tell the layman, the accurate diversity linking North and South India I then surfed it on “Wikipedia” and “Google web links” that,” Why South India is better than North India”?

Various columnists and bloggiest showed up the facts but someone whom everyone looks up to is Aakar Patel and Madhukar Sabnavis.Needless to say, I had to read it to stay in sync with the happening crowd.

Minutes later I yipped! It was then I  decided in about my upcoming article and got my heart comforted that what Aakar Patel beamed are the facts and something in which I will personally agree Being a North Indian myself, I was brought up in south and what I feel I would like to convey. 

 Like each day, My Sony deck was playing all my favorite Indo-western tracks which I am addictive too while doing some work, then Aaa Ante Amlapuroo one of the famous southern tracks appeared on it and minutes later, I heard some loud voices including my mother pissed at me about wasting my time listening to irrelevant tracks and not helping her out with dinner. I was brought up learning all different languages of India. So, for me I know what I was singing and what it means.
There’s a commonly found ability of south Indians to articulate or eavesdrop to another (Indian) state’s language. This comes from closeness more than from any pressing desire to be multicultural. But it shows the southerner’s openness, and even his canon of sacred music includes songs from another state, in another language. Not because it is awesome .The track that I was listening “Aaa ante Amlapuroo” have written established tunes. The words in the song described the famous towns of Andhra Pradesh It separates them from north Indians who have no rule of Lyrical music. The average southerner can assess a performance of his classical music better than the other. To appreciate Hindustani music other than automatically, a northerner must study the deep form of his music, which a few can. There are Punjabi tracks which are very popular here, but the lyrics and the background music has are vogue less for me.  
Clearly, the two cultures are different. Let’s look at some of the substantive ways in which they differ
 Within the country we have always wondered at the black looking, dhoti clad, rice-sambhar eating  Madrasis whose icons are some filmi heroes and Dravidian leaders, who have a deep seated penchant for take up the superiority of their own lingua and the ancient culture which, they are perennially afraid, will be diluted by the introduction of a common national language ! There can be as many views as the number of states in the Indian union about each other perspective as viewed by an out-sider.  While penning down this article, gave me the views of a native of western part of our country about a southerner and bringing out the nuances which are not only humorous but also informative.

The south Indian can access the north Indian’s music easily. Often he even masters it. WitnessTamilians A.R. Rahman and Shankar Mahadevan in Indian film Industry. Something that strikes me as being different is that south India’s high culture has little influence of Islam. It is Hindu culture, not a mix. There is complete Hindustani- Catholicism. There’s no equivalent of “Ganga Jamuni”, as the northerner refers to his high culture, a mix of Hindu tradition and the aristocratic Perso-Arabic tradition produced during Muslim rule. This might be seen as a bad thing. But the south Indian is actually quite tolerant. North India’s high culture is Indo-Persian, whether in music or poetry. Even some of the popular culture is influenced by Islam, such as Amir Khusro. What is the south Indian Muslim’s high culture? I do not know. There is no urban Muslim aristocracy here unlike the north, were one to exclude the Dakhni speakers of Hyderabad. Much of the culture appears imitative of the north’s Indo-Persian tradition. This seems out of place here, and perhaps one reason for the lack of mingling is that for the most part the southern Muslim’s culture is low church, and therefore unappealing to the outsider.   Next,The most important one for me is Mumbai has its own charms, but an intellectual life isn’t among them. It is a city of singularly dull conversation. This is because south Mumbai is dominated by Guajarati who are not an intellectual people and quite proud of that fact. In the north of the city, Bollywood’s cacophony effectively obliterates any other culture. It is true that the middle-class Marathi is different, but he has no desires.  There is commonly found ability of south Indians to speak another (southern) state’s language. This comes from proximity more than from any pressing desire to be multicultural. But it shows the southerner’s openness, and even his canon of sacred music includes songs from another state, in another language. I like Mumbai, and it is my dream city but Third costliest urban town after Hyderabad and Gurgaon.

Hours later at my place, we witness some family relations from the maternal side. The 2bhk flat  converts into a zoo completely..  One hardly gives relaxation to its epiglottis. This is one of my examples regarding intolerant voices with less personality traits.

During one of the conversation with my renowed family relatives, a teenager intervenes the talk and tells me that he is going to switch to his father’s clinic as well as their family business as he is quite aware of it and education comes later. “Papa paisa laga dege aur mein pass ho jaounga”. It’s true. He is too bad with his subjects. I don’t bother much, he said”. This proved me that northerns are nothing but business clads with getting profit for themselves and no participation for society or state. . They are foul-mouthed. They show off their Audis and SUVs’. I suddenly had flashes of all the smart south Indian kids who always scored higher than me while I was in Maharashtra. Now I knew why?

Education is the first criteria before anything done by the government in South. One can find all good quality of educational institute including the vocational subjects. There is a broad mentality with southerner in every aspect. Young people from the south are migrating to the northern urban towns and capitals in search of employment. Currently, the migration of southerners to the north has declined while northerners are moving in large numbers to the south in search of jobs.

Next day, there was a debate on Aaj Tak about the road rage incident in Delhi. The news reader asked a government official about,” why things like these don't happen in Mumbai. In response, to this, one of the Official said, that apart from police, it is also a matter of cultural differences between North and the South. From the time of Independence, the south has been ahead of the north in literacy, infant mortality, life expectancy, fertility rate and other factors that contribute to greater productivity.

According to the PAC study, south is not just a "supply side miracle “but quality of governance and leadership is somewhat better in south. It is also ahead in terms of technical education, tele-density, power and urbanization. More than half of all engineering colleges in the country are in the south, as I told you before, better governance facilitated these factors and enabled the state to more efficiently utilize its scarce resources.
Samuel Paul one of the activists said, “Social movements in the south made people more aware of the need to demand better and more equitable governance from the authorities”.
Strong movements in Kerala and Tamil Nadu a century ago began to mobilize vast segments of population especially the lower castes, to push for education and job reservation in government. Governments there responded and the result was the increased spread of education, awareness, networking and entrepreneurship in the southern states, the study said.
"This in turn laid the foundation for a more inclusive growth pattern. Such social movements are absent in the north where the demand for better governance and entitlements from lower castes was absent or merely used for identity politics. When the demand is missing, the pressure on the supply side is also too weak
 Talking about northerner and southern tolerance, it is true that over here in North, people are quick to get into fights. Even for small issues it is normal for people to thrash each other. There have been cases in my state where Politicians bashing other party member of parliament  had a live telecast on news channels  over religious issues based on beef banning bill in the state that is band all over India by the present government.
 Baniya, the south Brahman, vegetarianism isn’t oppressive. The intolerant and insular Guajarati  and Marwari of Malabar Hill have banished all meat from their neighborhoods. There is little sign of such horror of pork and beef eaters around their now. But Generally speaking, the Gujarati’s fanaticism against meat is absent.

 Few days back The Times of India, published an article about the cleanest city of India, Bangalore.

 I was in Bangalore for a week, representing my university from north then, where the state seemed to be relaxed and much less chaotic than an average Northie city. I stayed near Mysore and there was a main road that passed through over my hostel. Even during the busiest hours of the day I could walk on that road without being afraid of the traffic. I made a wish that I will plant something here of mine in future.  South India is far from being pollution free; they are visibly cleaner.  The streets appear to be much better looked after by the people, with no sign of people abandoning their plastic to the streets anywhere and everywhere.  I am certain this contributes to how beautiful it is in the south, the land is free to be seen without being covered in a sea of garbage. North is a complete opposite of it

Another welcome difference I have noticed is the way the men behaved. My primitive ears can tackle loud voices and interfaces in others matter  I have talked about  North Indian  men   are too loud  I stand by what I said, but perhaps I should make an codicil as  what I have experienced in South India.  The men here are either more polite or better at hiding their behavior.  I am not sure why this behavior is so different here, possibly education is a factor, or perhaps there is something else going here culturally in the way people are raised.

Getting to the feminine slice, I have witnessed is the women, are visible in south and north I always felt like women were invisible, particularly in the evening.  Here in the south I see them everywhere, in public transport, on the streets, working and going about their daily business. Perhaps this is part of the reason why the men behave so differently, women wandering the streets are not a foreign sight to them, but a normal part of everyday life. There is no show off at all here as compared to the opposites.
 Dravidian's   appears to be more affluent than the north.  People look much better fed; the housing looks better and there are fewer beggars on the street.  Poverty is still definitely here, but it is far less in your face than I found in north India.  This may be because the population is more sparse here creating an illusion of affluence.
South’s urban culture is more intellectual. The theory is that this is so because its culture is subjugated by the Brahman. When I listen to intelligent conversation in South and look around there is a vast difference, they dominate. People like Ananthampty and M.s Subbhalaxmi would not be treasured in another culture as they are in southern region. It seems to me that civic life here is more intellectual, and certainly it strives more than in Gujarat or Maharashtra.

 During a holiding, I formulated a quick plan, going forward, Roadies was coming on Mtv channel but I was interrupted by my father to put the local news as what I was watching was not in our culture. To keep his heart I switched on to local news channel that had ads more than the news itself. It was a feeling of watching 30 minutes serial show with ads by its side that came as a distraction for me.

To increase my culture quotient, and soon I should be able to understand the vocal languages like the good people from the South do. I simply visualized how I will   converse with my future would be in tuti futi dogri, my mother tongue, and call him “A ji”. Sunday and saturtaday has a start of rajma chawal or channe and poori as the brunch for weekends. South has variety of food cusines, that are really relish-able and if you live with a south Indian, you will notice that there’s a change in their meals every second day that can be easily digested. No doubt north Indians are foodie but south Indians relish the true taste

My mother calls me a true southie girl, not because I am part of it but because I have my actual comrades from this side of India. There’s more than that what her mental level thinks for me. I may not be able to explain her but my heart thinks psychologically better, I guess so.

 I am increasingly realizing the fact that a larger proportion of North Indians I have encountered (as compared to South Indians) have too much of ego, attitude of knowing almost everything, lack spine to say-'I don't know' and nonetheless inherent habits of show off .

Man creates his destiny, If Michael Jackson could go from black to white, and surely going from whitish to a couple of shades darker must be a relative cakewalk. What say?

Thank you Aakar Patel, for boarding up my knowledge and waking me up from hallucinations of true India. The guy made me realize just how pathetic an existence do we North Indians live like.

"TWO INDIAS"

Less than a decade in north India, there’s a colossal cultural shift that I have witnessed between north and south India. It’s not just the food and climate though that makes South India the finest state to me; it is the people and the environment, music, culture, religion, education, language, and their attitude and behavior that I have personally witnessed from both the directions.

 In the last few years, there has been much written and said about "two India’s" – called north and south. One is largely dependent in the metros and large towns - the entry point for most multinational brands, and where the early adopters of new products were located. The second India is where the early majority of the market exists, and the markets where scale could be achieved. India 2 is always seen to be looking up to India 1 and adopting things a 'bit' later. However, mixes needed to be somewhat adapted for the local conditions and communication needed to go beyond the brand to layers of emotion. Just as an indication, let's compare numbers for the four "Bimaru" states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) representing North India and the four South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Bimaru states account for about 450 million people, and the four South Indian states, about 250 mn.

The average monthly per-capita household expenditure for North India across the states in both urban and rural regions is much lower than the India average of Rs 1,984 and Rs 1,054 respectively, while for the four southern states, it's largely higher. The same is true about the penetration of consumer items like televisions and two-wheeler - and for latrines within the premises too. The average South Indian family has a better quality of life than its Northern counterpart.

 
The numbers may not be definitive but indicate that the North and South are evolving as two different economies, and could be treated as different countries. It's already well known that modern trade is more evolved in the South than the North. And basic infrastructure is also superior in South India versus the North. Marketers have been historically sensitive to the cultural difference between the two regions. And mixes have often been adapted for the same - from language to caste to modifying rituals in advertising and even products to suit local tastes and needs. Mass media has evolved in an isolatable manner and so made the creation of distinct communication easy. However, as we move forward, this new dimension to the "two Indias" story could provoke fresh, fundamental thinking in marketing. It would be facile to say that more evolved market mixes would suit the South and that of more developing markets be adapted for the North, based on the indicators mentioned at the start of this piece. These numbers just indicate that the South is ahead of the development curve compared to the North, and is growing older.

However, it may be interesting to consider different tasks in these markets and develop both marketing mixes and communication palettes accordingly. This recognizes that the two markets could be at different stages of evolution for the same category. There could be a penetration task in the North and a consumption task in the South; it could be a transactional task in the North and brand affinity-building in the South.

Even the tonality of communication and the role of larger purposes assigned to brands could be different. As the South is older, brands should be less irreverent, yet able to stand for larger purposes including social causes given the market iss more evolved, especially educationally. Some brand stances that work in the West today could be more easily used in the South for brands and categories that are more evolved in those markets; the North may still need some basic market development concepts. The greater presence of modern trade in the South means different shopper behavior, at least for a core segment, and hence different media opportunities to drive brand-building.

South India is far from being pollution free; the streets here are visibly cleaner.  The streets appear to be much better looked after by the people, with no sign of people abandoning their plastic to the streets anywhere and everywhere.  I am certain this contributes to how beautiful it is in the south, the land is free to be seen without being covered in a sea of garbage. . Another welcome difference is south Indians give first important preference to education than what we see in north where children  are business  learned  I am not sure why this behavior is so different here, possibly education is a factor, or perhaps there is something else going here culturally in the way people are raised.

On the basis of my readings and net search,there is more educational infrastructure per capita in the south, which is likely to be a major contributing factor to the improved environment. I have to say, it has certainly made a huge difference, enough for me to contemplate whether perhaps it is somewhere I could call home in the future.