I had this conversation with the Dude two days back, and I decided to post it then but hadn't found time. Anyway, it was Tarang, and NTU was taking on NUS in a cultural. Now this cultural is a purely Chennai funda wherein different different institutions compete for honour in creative, artistic fields. NTU thrashed NUS in all but the Western Music event where Levee lead singer Rajesh, formerly Taklya, stole the show with 'Highway to Hell', quite well deserved.

NTU had won both the Dance competition and the Indian Music competition, but a considerable number of Indians in the audience were ruffled, disgruntled. The dance was performed for a Tamil song, and all the three songs in the Indian music section were Tamil. Nevertheless, I was happy that NTU had won and NUS folks with their "We are so cool and sexy" attitudes had been put down. It's that tribal. Last year there was almost a catfight after NUS won the Dance competition and the NUS lead dancer went onstage and mocked the NTU dance. It was later that the Dude told me that someone had passed some comment to the effect, "Mein yahan Indian cultural programme dekhne aya tha. Ye kya bakwas baja rahen hain yeh log?"

Mera matha thanka.

The Dude was trying to justify the remark by saying that cultural demographics in NTU were quite different from those in Delhi or elsewhere in North India, and hence some people did not feel at home. In my opinion, however, people from South India have to face a different cultural demographic in NTU than they are used to in Chennai or most other places in South India. The fact was that no one wanted to go and practice singing a Hindi or a Punjabi song and hence there weren't any Hindi songs sung. I mean, NUS had a Tamil song and a lovely Hindi jugalbandi which was quite enjoyed by the crowd but was not very popular with the judges. So the question to be raised is, is the adoption of North Indian culture as the (un)official culture of India causing an aversion in North Indians towards other cultures, even cultures from other parts of India?

An interesting thought experiment came about as a result of the discussion. There are many Scandinavian students in NTU. Norwegians mostly. I wagered the Dude that one of the people who had passed the comment was more likely to go to a Norwegian cultural programme than go to an Indian cultural programme which would be dominated by non-Hindi songs. The Dude agreed with me.

Do you agree with me? Are there people around you too who are like this?