Especially when they leave a bad taste in your mouth and smack of racism? Here's a young Guwahati-based journalist writing in Tehelka on his encounter with a Delhi landlady:
“Oh, you guys are Manipuris?” She intended a rhetorical question but wound up reiterating the popular geographical lessons that ignorance has taught her — along with probably another three-quarters of the population. The northeastern states have been muddled and shuffled to form this mess, stripping all civilisational peculiarity that is natural.
To read the article in full, go here.
Racism has become a part and parcel of the daily life of people from the north eastern states of India, so when a person from this region encounters a particularly nasty experience, the person has no need to feel depressed, there are countless others to give company, each with a harrowing tale to tell.
ReplyDeleteThe oh so evident sniggers, comments and rude attitude are all too common for north easterners now.
If a person is even somewhat "fair looking" with different facial characteristics, then you can be sure the comments are coming your way in a speed that can equal the Rajdhani Express.
The irony is that these so called north easterners are the ones who are often a huge source of livelihood, in the form of paying guests,as call centre employees who splurge on eateries, and in a way, which can be argued but I give a damn, contributing to the day by day livelihood of many local people who waste no opportunity to hurl racial comments.
This will go on forever but I believe, you just gotta take it in your stride and move on in life, after all life is too short to waste by replying or even trying to explain to such losers....cheers-@sh