Bangalore is a place where buses are the backbone of public
transportation. And it is really one of the best ones among the transportation services
available in different states. But many a times I have felt that the attitude
of some of the conductors/drivers is very disgusting for non-south Indians. Yes
“non-south Indian”, any non-south Indian is tagged as “north Indian”.
Let me describe you in detail about the incident:
My friend with her hubby boarded a volvo bus from the bus-stop
next to her house. They both got into the bus from the second door which is
basically meant for the guys to enter. There were not many people getting from
their stop so they got inside together from second door. There was no place to
sit, so they stood in the area which has three chairs. They could not move to the
standing area which is in between the two sides of seats because already people
were standing there (people who travel by these buses will understand). Conductor
comes and asks my friend’s hubby to move back; he says that he can’t because
there is no place. In reply for this, the conductor pushes him behind. Then my
friend’s hubby asks the conductor not to touch, which I think is fair enough.
Now what the conductor does?
He starts abusing; yes, he starts abusing with all hindi-words
which are ridiculous and offensive for example: “MCBC” again and again. (I hope
people can decrypt this for I don’t want my blog to be offensive) My friend got
very angry and she told the conductor to control his tongue. Conductor totally
ignores what she tells and continues abusing, says something like…“khane ke
liye aa jaate hai”and asks them to get down from the bus.
Finally, they get down, take another bus and reach their
respective offices. And there in office, my friend informs me about the whole
incident.
“khaane k liye aa jaate hai”…means that we the non-south Indians
come to Bangalore to eat. Mr. Conductor, you are briefly right. But please
remember that we come here to eat not because we don’t have enough in our
natives that we can’t survive; we come here for job because unfortunately we
are software engineers and Bangalore is the IT hub. If there were IT companies
in our respective states or if we were not software professionals - then
probably we would not have come here leaving our family and relatives in our
respective natives.
I am asked to get down from the bus. Am I travelling for
free? We are working and earning and spending our money. You are not doing
anything for us for free. Then who the hell are you to ask me to get down from the
bus? These buses are meant for public transport and are government property and
not your personal property.
If any passenger asks anything in hindi, they will stare you
and prefer not to reply. Why? You watch hindi movies, you know hindi abusive words
but you can’t reply to a genuine question asked in hindi. I am settled here
from years, I work here, I know that it will be helpful if I know the local
language but I can’t speak it so is it a criminal offence for which I should be
publicly harassed and insulted in front of so many people who were nothing else
but the silent spectators.
End of the day, everyone should stop discriminating and dividing
the people based on their caste and region and remember that we are all Indians
and being an Indian citizen, our constitution gives us the right to stay
anywhere in India and for that we don’t need anyone’s permission.
It is not just my friend or me who have come across such situations;
the situation may not be this severe but it happens with many of us. Why is it
so? Why this step attitude towards us? I am not generalizing all the conductors
but there are few who have this attitude towards us. It is my humble request to
you all that please don’t behave like this with us, we get hurt. We are not
taking anything from you and we don’t expect anything too but atleast we don’t
deserve such attitude.
This is not a story, this is a true incident that has happened..After this incident took place, my friend's husband has already filed a complaint to the bmtc department taking the details from their website.
This blog is not a personal attack to anyone. Even I have south-indian friends, colleagues and neighbours. I am not against south indians, i am against this biased attitude, wherever it exists. This may happen to any north-indian who stays in south or to any south-indian who stays in north; basically it can happen to anyone who is a migrant in that particular region. My intention is neither to create any controversies nor to hurt anyone's sentiments.
People have started attacking me personally. It is my humble request to everyone not to be judgemental without reading the complete blog, please read it completely and don't just pick a few words and start blaming me.
I am staying in bangalore since last 3.5 years and ofcourse I love this place. I respect it's culture and language. I have a job, a family, a life that I lead here by my own wish and I don't regret for that. I love my life here. Please don't interpret me in a wrong way. Don't project me as a racist. But like all of you, I am also a human being. I also get hurt by someone's harsh words. My question is just that don't I have a right to speak up if something intolerable has happened. It has not happened to me but it has happened to someone very near to me.
Many of us are from IT and we travel day in and day out in buses to commute to work. What I want to appeal is not to entertain such incidents wherever it may be and anywhere in India. Let us voice out our concerns and make Bangalore a beautiful and most desired place to be.
