The past few weeks - well except for the overreaction over Aamir Khan, have all been about the excellent response of Chennai's citizens to the flood. Unfortunately I was unable to witness it, but in addition to talks with family and friends, the talk on social media was extensive. Perhaps a little too extensive. Starry-eyed, in fact.
It would be unfair to say that it all started with photos of people helping each other "irrespective of religion" (among other distinctions) swarming the internet - no, this was just the cherry on top of a cake that began baking over a year back.
I don't understand why it had to wait until 2014, loads of people have moved out of Chennai much before, and Chennai hate wasn't new either. But yeah, 2014 has been much of an awakening for most parts of India - with images taking over text, particularly on Facebook (after check-ins became obsolete), and memes originating, news started creeping into people's feed* in addition to pointless posts by people on sites like Storypick. While it is indeed pathetic to see a literate world hesitant to read text until put on an image, it comes as a relief to see that there is some way to penetrate the seemingly non permeable brains of today's generation.
Chennai has received a lot of undeserving criticism from people from the other parts of India, particularly the North - yes, I too have been, and sometimes still am an unwilling audience to some of it, defending my city in vain to people who choose to be loudspeakers and not lend a listening ear. Points raised revolve around the city's weather and the fact that people do not speak Hindi.
So, in and around 2013-14, several Facebook pages such as Chennai Memes and My Chennai started posting beautiful pictures of, and posts about the city which were received with open arms by Tamilians all over India - and the world, and hence rose to popularity. Oh, and there have been quite a few songs on Chennai too - notable ones being The Madras Song and Chancey Illa.
So, while some (especially those living outside Tamil Nadu) were able to relate to this expression of strong love for their city, others stopped to notice the beauty of this cosmopolitan, and developed an attachment for it.
My title is slightly misleading - Chennai is by no means underrated in South India, it is only when it comes to India as a whole that this happens. Chennai isn't merely overshadowed by the North - there is plenty of room for Chennai - and perhaps ten (or more) other cities to be recognized at least countrywide. It is a choice of the people - the people who are able to focus their eyes on, and identify completely with one city, not just because it is India's commercial capital, but because it houses Bollywood - the one thing that connects Hindi speakers. Funnily enough, though, the ones (outside Maharashtra) who pay heed to this blind themselves to the fact that it is (supposedly) a Marathi speaking city**. While Bollywood gladly lets Urdu, Punjabi and even the Mumbai slang (not to mention English) creep into its Hindi, it has been extremely careful in not letting Marathi seep into it - a price, I'd say, Mumbai has paid in being the Capital of India, rather than that of Maharashtra.
But Chennai refuses to pay such a price - yes, the Anti-Hindi movement, a mere political tool decades ago has left some dislike in the minds of the previous generation, but our generation is different - we're interested in learning Hindi - and a good number of us can speak it pretty well. Oh and we watch Bollywood films too. But we aren't a people who will give up on our mother tongue - we will never exchange our language for anything. While in most other parts of India, people attach themselves to their religion, caste, an interest group or something else, our first priority is language (and then the others follow of course). But with all that, we are a great city - an awesome city that quite a few don't see to look up to. I have lived at Bangalore and Mumbai, and have visited Delhi, and I can definitely say that Chennai is no less. While there are things we need to learn from these cities, there are things these cities an learn from us, too.
And so we've been crying out for attention for a while. In doing so, many of us looked at ourselves - a very few fell in love for the first time, but most of us realized how deeply we were in love. And then we had the floods. We didn't have to be asked. We knew what had to be done, and that we had to. And we did it. We didn't overdo anything. The only marginally naive part was photos and posts of inter-religious mingling - something that is so common not merely at Chennai, but at most parts of the country. We were being ourselves, our intentions were pure, the photos were genuine, and so were first hand reports. The memes, in particular, were, you know, silly and romantic***. And now you know why we did that.
And has Chennai lost her grandeur, has she stooped down in expressing her desire for recognition - and that too, rather explicitly? Not in the least. We deserve respect and recognition - something that must've been given to us on a golden platter - and we are asking our country for it and there is nothing puerile about that.
* Some of it false news or twisted statements no doubt, but nevertheless, Facebook still is one of the best ways to spread awareness
** A trait I have observed with Bangalore residents too - desperate attempts to have Kannada boards on buses seem futile attempts. Oh, and in case you've ever travelled by bus in Mumbai you'd note that they too have only Marathi written all over them.
*** In Tamil, we have a term, namely, "Aarvakolaru" to describe this over-the-edge-zeal
Another thought (A comment of mine on Quora):
It is odd is that people keep giving examples of
coexistence of people of different religions.. They need to cease to be
examples, they should be the way of life... The fact is that such is the
way of life in our country - coexistence is how we live our lives - we don't
merely respect another religion, we go to the extent of accepting it. Do
you think of your friend's religion when you share a plate of pav bhaji with
him/her? Or when you have a smoke with them?
A religion-centric country like Afghanistan or Pakistan
should be proud of such examples - they should learn from us, be we can't keep
posting pictures of religious coexistence as if it is a recent development..
With that said, I'd say it isn't time for people to grow up, we are already old
enough and wise - it is time for the social media to grow up, and naive news
propagandists to get a life..
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