After being in Singapore for about a month; I have finally managed to develop a stereotype of a Tamil (Singapore is the most Tamil place I have been to date). One can argue that the Tamils are a bit like the Jews. The Jews, when considered as a single entity, have some of the most conservative elements (the orthodoxy) and the radical liberal elements (the heroes of the 60s, Chomsky, Ginsberg, Arthur Miller etc.). Though with much less global impact, Tamils show a similar dichotomy. While Tamil police and university office bearers can get into super-duper moral policing, the Tamils are also the people who dared challenge God, Brahmins and Hindi. They are also the heartland of the most leftist newspaper in India with a surprisingly religious name – The Hindu.
But big things apart, a simble Tamil has very simble needs which go with him wherever he goes. And as per my stereotype, his needs are the following:
- Either of Curd riceaa/ Sambhar riceaa/ Rasam riceaa
- Hot water
- Long good sleep
- A Red T-shirt
- Rehman
- Email/ internet access
Next post on the shimple needs of a Bengali.
10 comments:
I would add another three:
Kapi (filtered coffee)
temples, for reasons and without
(and at least for those in Tamil Nadu, the mandatory)
daily dose of The Hindu
Gossip, that's what the Tamil thrives on.
Curd rice is not an option, it is a must...in my office cafeteria they serve curd rice even with the North Indian food...
I wish Tamils were as rich and influential as the Jews in the USA..Tamilians are also largely risk averse
@ Bs:
Agree with you on Kapi and Temples..
Not so soure about Hindu..
How many tamil speaking people have u met till now in ur life time ?
can you be a bit more specific? tamil is surely a super large classification. is this higher-education, IT workers, tamils born and brought up in tamil nadu.
a statement such as singapore is the most tamil place i have been to is very contradictory.
it does make sense if the stem of the post is based on a predefined stereotype of tams..
Hindu newpaper is the worst in the world. Its worse than times of india
According a Tamilian friend, Tamilian(s)
1/ are sentimental (very general statement !)
2/ brahmin girls are beautiful (why are many telugu girls fair but not tamilian girls ? )
3/ watch movies but not like Telugu people (only if rehman composes music)
4/ consider Madras as Boston of east since so many colleges are there ( how about delhi or mumbai or bangalore ?)
5/ are good in physics and biochemisty for so many physicists were from chennai (cv raman spent significant time in kolkata)
Tamils have only one currency - Speech/Gossip/Rhetoric. They prize the ability to talk in Tamil above all else. So you have the Chennai film industry, politics, magazines, newspapers, temples, streetcorners & water-tap fights ( kolai adi chandai ), husband wife son daughter mundane conflicts, all of it, every single waking sleeping moment of Thamizh culture, dominated by 1 entity = rhetortic in Thamizh.
Tamilnadu is the only state in India, in fact anywhere in the world, where RHETORIC is GOD. If you can engage in great tamil rhetoric, you are set for life in TN - you can do anything, be anybody. Deeds are not considered that important, words are. It is a strange culture.
But I like it, since I am a Tamilian as well :)
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