I attended a close Relative’s wedding recently.

The Bride’s Family are Tamils settled in Mumbai about Forty years back.

They claim they are Tamils’speak Tamil at Home, their Mother Tongue is Tamil, declare they are originally(?) from Palghat.

The Marriage was conducted in South Indian Brahmin style.

On the dais, when the final ceremonies of tying the Mangal Sutra(Thaali), Uncle of the bride, who was standing near me exclaimed, on a particular ceremony being performed(Aupaasana),

‘Yeh, pehle Karna Thaa’ ( this should have been performed earlier)

I asked him what his mother tongue is.

He replied ‘Tamil”

The behavior of the Tamils who are settled or even on a short stay to the Northern States, particularly Mumbai, New Delhi, is funny to say the least.

They talk in Hindi, watch Hindi Channels when on a trip to their relatives Homes in their Native State and converse in Hindi much to the discomfiture and embarrassment of their Hosts.

They add comments,

‘ye madrasi ka practice hai’

They seem to imagine they are culturally superior to their people speaking their language, forgetting the fact that they are never accepted as a Northerner in the states where they are settled in.

You might have been living in these states for even fifty years, still you are  a Madrasi’!

Yet for important functions they come back to their Native place or State!

They speak Hindi, English and Tamil, can not write or read Tamil, yet call Tamil as their Mother tongue.

Yet they follow Tamil Traditions.

They just do not seem to know their Identity.

They belong neither here nor there.

Is this not a crisis of Cultural Identity?

The same is applicable to Indian Tamils settled in the US.

They compensate this by over enthusiasm for following their native customs more than their counterparts in India.

The curious fact that those Tamils who are settled in Bangalore, Hyderabad, do not identify or learn Kannada or Telugu;but pick up Hindi!

Paradoxical!

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