If it is Monday, then it is time to segue back in to Sepia timepassing gently. After all, you’ve had quite the weekend, I’m sure. Exercise your commenting skillz by playing the caption game! Don’t you know that working out without a proper warm-up isn’t wise? 😉
Many thanks to Paul, who guaranteed we’d be able to play today by sending in this tip (“a great candidate for a caption contest”); if any of you spot similarly interesting, “Brown” photographs, pass them along! This picture accompanied an article, some of which is available after the jump.
So, just what is going on here? I’m sure that a few of you already know (and may have witnessed the spectacle yourselves!), but if you don’t recognize the hotstepping, here’s the relatively-somber caption the L.A. Times gave this image:
A Pakistani guard, left, and an Indian counterpart march during a nightly border-closing ceremony. It’s an elaborate, almost comical, show of martial bravado and chest-puffing that has gone on for nearly 60 years. [LAT]
Not sure how to play? Peep these previous editions of captioning fun: Ondhu, Eradu, Mooru, Naal’ku, Aydhu, Aaru, EyLu…
WAGAH CROSSING, INDIA-PAKISTAN BORDER — If nations rose and fell according to their camp quotient and funny hats, then these rivals would still be locked in a total stalemate.
Who doesn’t love CAMP!
Most every evening for nearly 60 years, a peculiar ritual has unfolded here on what has been one of the world’s hottest borders. As twilight approaches and the gates are about to close between India and Pakistan, the guards on either side face off in an elaborate show of martial bravado and chest-puffing that nonetheless includes that most basic of fraternal gestures: the handshake.
Hundreds of spectators from both countries cheer as their men in uniform strut, goose-step and stamp their feet like impatient bulls. Individual guards on either side break ranks and power-walk toward one another as if to collide head-on, but stop just short of the line dividing their homelands and glower fiercely through their mustaches.
I’m rather anti-facial hair, which makes me a bad Malayalee, but I must say, the final five words of that quote almost make me appreciate a good meesha. 😉
Patriotic songs boom through loudspeakers as the national flags are lowered at exactly the same speed and the gates finally swing shut.
Would that the craptastic filmi dances one has to sit through at every single “community” event were as well-coordinated. If you want to imitate Bollywood, do it properly and don’t be THAT girl who’s constantly two beats behind. Especially during the turns or the dramatic sinking to the floor. It looks awful. Take a lesson from the glowering moustaches, ladkis.
The tightly choreographed ceremony is part colonial pomp, part macho posturing and part Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. The rowdy tourist crowds eat it up.
If you ask me, there isn’t enough Monty Python in the world. Jai Hind! Er…and…Pakistan.
“Everything was just perfect,” Rajat Kalia, an electrical engineer who lives in Delhi, said after a recent viewing. “It’s impressive.”
It is also, of course, a manifestation of a very real rivalry that has produced three bloody wars since the twin birth of India and Pakistan in 1947.
For half an hour each evening at sunset, the decades of enmity are sublimated in a mostly good-natured, almost comical competition between the men in black, wearing headgear with fantails of the same color (Pakistan); and the men in khaki, whose hats are adorned with scarlet fantails (India).
They set up bleachers for this. They even have MCs to get the crowd hyped. No word on whether anyone does the wave or if either side is subjected to that stupid “right side/left side/who is louder?” game.
…Kalia, the engineer, found the event a good-humored, patriotic bit of fun, a friendly contest between two rival nations over pomp and circumstance. It wasn’t a competition in which national pride and prestige were really on the line.
“If it’s cricket,” he said, “then it’s a completely different feeling.” [LAT]
::
Silly title courtesy of this annoying joint. Like you didn’t know.
Maxdavinci, I would like to point out two things. Firstly, the autowallahs and hawkers know the Telugu they do because of their interaction with Telugu speakers in Chennai, of which there are quite a significant number. The movies also do play a part, I guess. Secondly, the last word you mentioned in quotes? I wouldn’t mention it here in a public forum, because it isn’t exactly PC. 😉
Madras used to be a Telugu-Tamil city in the 60s. In fact, at one point, I think there was some consideration, though it went nowhere, to include Madras in a Telugu state. Regardless, Andhra and tamilnadu were one state with Madras as the center until they made a separate Andhra state. I could be a little fuzzy on the timeline.
Not to mention, the Telugu film industry was based out of Madras until the 80s. So you got plenty of auto rickshaw drivers who knew good Telugu in the 70s and 80s. It is supposedly pretty much a Tamil city now.
Er, no. There are lots who have settled in Madras for some generations, there are also lots who visit them from native places in AP as tourists. Mr.Wise’s experiences may not be universal.
That said, many of the more prosperous businesses in Madras (in their respective fields) are owned by Telugu people (Sathyam theaters, Naidu Hall, Nalli silks, Vummidi gold…). That is not to imply that all Telugu people in Madras are rich.
i’m surprised there are no comments about the indian soldier’s possible state of arousal yet.
Nala, Malayalam is here or is it tamil. Dammit, now I am the confused.
I guess the majority are tourists, although I could be wrong. The thing I’m trying to say is that if you speak Telugu, you are identified as a tourist/out of towner, hence making you a probable target to rip off! And I say this because I went to college in Chennai, picked up enough Tamil to survive, and never, ever haggle in Telugu. 😉
Yep, that’s how it creeps into vocabulary…..
Its not to be taken in the literal meaning but more of colloquial. I don’t recollect the film, but thats the name of rajni’s horse. Its used a lot in common usage and in not a derogatory way. its more like the hindi cuss word BC, which in the literal sense means sumthin but in the north is spoken even in households in the presence of elderly as well as kids.
All said, I apologise if i’ve hurt anyone’s sentiments…..
Youtube view from the Pakistan side here
“You think your socks smell ?”
“Look, no underwear”(The picture of the pakistani guard gives the impression he is unzipping)
“And this is how aasanas are done”
“Can I touch your plume ?”
tell me about it!
aside… no one i know has actually called it ‘chennai’ instead of ‘madras’ out loud. like, never ever.
53 pingpong, you are correct in saying that a significant number have been around in Chennai for ages. Then I would be surprised if these people were to start haggling in Telugu instead of Tamil, which I am sure they would know pretty well by now. Therefore, my surmise was that the people who do speak in Telugu are likely to be tourists, or new in town.
he he – ve are yeveryvere! when it was all one state (madras presidency) madras was the biggest city, so naturally people from all over the state came here for better opportunities, and many of them ended up in business. obviously, the split into AP and TN made no difference for many of these people who had already established themselves in some way, be it professionally or socially. the type of telugu varies sometimes (e.g. the family that owns radha silks speaks pretty improper telugu, while nalli, vummidi etc speak proper telugu) but you can find telugu people all over madras and TN in general. and of course, as you move further towards the AP order in TN, the telugu gets better.
Nala, I have been calling it Chennai ever since the name changed! Maybe this is because I’m not from Tamil Nadu? I don’t really have any nostalgia or hankering for the old name. Besides, as the bard would say, what’s in a name? 🙂
ak, i’m curious– what exactly is your family background? i’ve seen you mention telugu, but also tamil.
Yes, then we agree. I did not want to give the impression that any Telugu person in Madras is automatically a tourist! 🙂
BTW were you in Sathyabama/St.Joseph’s/Venkateshwara by any chance? I ask because those three have large Telugu groups, something to do with “significant minority” status. Or IITM for that matter, though I don’t think they had any minority consideration.
The Indian guy is showing more flexibility by keeping his legs straight, while the Pakistani one is cheating by bending at the knees. Yaay…my guy kick is more impressive than yours.
nala – my family’s mother tongue is telugu, but we’ve been settled in TN for so many generations that we have no (known) relatives in AP. also, my mother’s family’s telugu is so bastardized to the point that i usually just tell people i speak tamil. though most telugu families in TN are not like that – my mother’ family grew up near thanjavur which, lingustically speaking, is somewhat the heartland of TN. on the other hand my dad grew up near the AP border and studied in telugu-medium chools, so his and his family’s telugu is pretty pukka. i wish he had spoken to me in proper telugu – i’m hoping to one day study it formally (and in the meantime, there’s NTR :))
PakAttack: Did you lose the bet too? ChakdeIndia:Yeah what a biyatch!! Twenty Twenty My Gaand!!
Right on the money, pingpong! I was indeed in one of the three institutions you mentioned. 🙂 However, although they may have had ‘significant minority’ status, the Telugu groups in them weren’t really that large. There are certain other colleges where the Telugu groups are much larger. This probably has something to do with those colleges having the reputation of being boot camps.
AK, is there a reason why you have been speaking with all the rich Telugu families in Madras?! 😀
mr. wise – did you get ragged on a lot because you were telugu? a family friend hates tamilians because of his school/college days…
i’m not even sure what ‘proper’ telugu is anymore. my parents have a few friends who speak in the telangana dialect and it’s hard to keep up with. and as my parents enter old age, they’re slipping back into their village roots with their slang, the way they talk, etc. and to be honest sometimes i just BS how i speak… like i’m not sure if ‘sit’ should be ‘kucho’ or ‘kurcho,’ and if ‘they came’ should be ‘occhaaru’ or ‘vocchaaru.’ if i could still read telugu fluently i probably wouldn’t be in the same dilemma!
he he – sadly, pingpong, we are one of them (and some of us are actually related)…
damn, so even among southern indians andhraites are the nerds who study slavishly?
mr. miyagi? who?
Did it come with the gulti tag?
gulti was exactly what i was thinkking (but didn’t want to rub salt and all that…)
Wait, by “those colleges”, did you mean the three I mentioned or colleges other than the ones I mentioned? I find it impossible to believe that there could be a college more boot-campish than Sathyabama! [My earlier thoughts on Sathyabama here, and here is a real set of rules from there.]
I’m waiting for a reply frm Mr.Wise before I shed some light on the gulti-aravodu angle…..
71 ak, not at all. 🙂 There was very little ragging in during my time in college, and whatever little there was had nothing to do with my being Telugu. Unfortunately, I can sympathise with your college friend because it appears my coll was a lot more integrated than others. I did hear about a few places where the friction between Tamils and Telugu people was a frequent occurence, and I suppose here ragging of the sort you mentioned could have taken place. And #74 nala, I wouldn’t know, because neither was I a nerd, nor did I study slavishly. 😉 However, I think this was more of a parent preference thingy.
damn, pingpong. ‘boys and girl are not allowed to talk to each other.’
at least they don’t have uniforms, right? i know some of the medical colleges in AP have those (not even for interning in the hospital, but for walking around and going to lectures)
AK, I am of similar avial stock too. My father’s family settled near Madurai eons ago. Their Telugu is incredibly modified and mixed with Tamizh. My mother’s family settled in Bangalore some three gens ago. Ofcourse, they believe their Telugu is “pure” – much to the amusement of their relatives from AP.
there was a controvery in my high school about wanting to introduce school uniforms. i for one was secretly pro school uniforms, as there would be a bunch of grls in school uniforms walking around….
Jeneral Naaledge 101 by Sosal Servis Guru
Tamil: Onnu Rendu Moonu Nalu Anji Aaru Ezhu Ettu Onbathu Patthu. Malayalam: Onnu randu moonnu naalu anju aaru eezhu ettu onpath pathh Telugu: OkaTi renDu mooDu naalugu aidu aru ehDu enimidi tommidi padhi Kannada: Ondhu yeradu mooru naalku aidhu aaru yeLu yentu ombattu hathu
Ensoy,Thank you very much!!
pingpong- That video was disturbing! Not only because of the outfits, but because of the outfits. And by that, I mean … well, you get what I mean. I’m afriad I’ll have to go with Tony Blair on this one.
Well, no need to be sad about it! 😀 I had partly suspected it from your previous comment about the families’ Telugu-speaking skills.
The gulti tag can get thrown about a lot, but I have come to realize that whether it is offensive or not depends entirely on who is using it and in what context. In my college, the Telugu association used to informally call itself the Gult Association! That defuses everything. In most cases, if there is prejudice behind the usage, it can be judged in the tone and non-vocal cues.
oh man this reminds me of something really stupid i said recently.
‘auntie i don’t eat aavakaya pacchadi. only mamudukaya pachhadi.’ both pacchadis = mango pickle. i never hear the former b/c my family is from guntur district, whereas this auntie is from west godavari and they call it by that.
wait wait… what is this about ‘gulti’?
nala @ 72 – though that makes me feel better, our telugu is really not telugu (despite my mother’s protests to the contrary). we don;t even use the proper grammatical forms for verbs. and i was amused to find out (after watching a tamil movie) that some of the words we use are also used in ‘ghetto’ tamil.
skepmod – i sympathise. when my cousin had her son, my aunt insisted she teaches him telugu (i.e. our telugu) and my cousin has refused – she’d rather have him speak standardised tamil than some terrible form of telugu…
maxdavinci and ak, the ‘gulti’ word was mentioned a lot, but sadly nowadays it is passing into the common lexicon, so I guess it is losing whatever derogatory/insulting implications it may have had. And I have no wound to get salt rubbed in, thanks! 😉 And pingpong, yes, there are other colleges out there more boot-campish then Satyabhama! I can’t be 100% sure, but there were rumours floating around of the prison camp like conditions in certain colleges, namely Pratyusha and RMK. I do hope there aren’t any of their alumni around. lol
as if there is such a thing. I remember, a long time ago, pondering the differences between the Tamizh of my Tam-Bram classmates and that of the fishermen/vendors in Chennai
I did my bachelors from hyderabad and was initially ragged a lot coz i was a tam(Aravodu as many call it). Thats when my dad told me the plight of ‘gultis’ while he was in REC Trichy.
During my masters however, anybody from the south was called a gulti……
even if those uniforms were boring white salwar kameez? ones where the top goes past the knee?
I myself encountered that video after reading about the Tony Blair thing in the news! Mercifully, the video is fairly short.
Puli, you do realize that by school uniform, one does not necessarily mean an outfit out of a Japanese hentai comic? 😀 Indian school uniforms can get down to stuff like “long hair must be plaited neatly and tied with white ribbons only”. Very exciting. Though I don’t know what your schol was planning.
Nala & Puli, Sathyabama also had rules like “girls shall wear salwar kameez ONLY. and the kameez shall have no slits up the side or front or back. If the kameez has slits, they shall be stitched shut. blah blah blah. No revealing please, ve are crazy”.
just to clarify… i am not a fashionista by any means. i am actually a huge slob. but i think i’d be pissed if my parents sent me to a college where i’d have to live a lot of my youth in boring, unflattering clothes.
AL_Chutiya_for_debauchery on September 17, 2007 01:15 PM Wrote:
“Battle of the Scythian males!”
Which one is supposed to be a Scythian?
Shouldn’t they be on a horse, then???
uh, not that education isn’t my number one priority in life 😀
My school(Bhavans) had skirts for girls which had to be above the knee!
“So,i see that you tried the “vagaira” too. Should’ve heeded the warning on it. Just another 40hours to go”
true, but i meant it in the relative sense. i wouldn’t say tam-bram tamil is standard tamil, as well as certain slang forms, but i would say most people in TN speak a form of tamil that is a closest approximation of a spoken standard, short of sentamizh…