Honest Q from a north Indian

As if you guys don't default to Hindi every chance you get

This is common with all language people. Group of malus will talk in malayalam, bengali will interreact in bengali.. odiya will revert to oriya... This is nothing specific being anti hindi or pro tamil.

But i do agree on that part where North Indian generally attract some amount of hostility. You have mentioned the reason - the few who are loud, rowdy and rude

@InterestingPrice93
I am a suitable one to answer you I feel - I am a chennai guy (born and bought up there) , lived in different cities (Bengaluru, hyderabad etc) but to break stereotype : I speak good hindi, tamil, english , kannada and a little telugu too(learning now)... So I won't limit myself with tamil alone or won't feel north indians as outsiders...

Being said that, ek haath se taali kabi nahi bajthi! generally i feel north indians have a tendency to expect what you want to be served to you anywhere and generally don't consider to accept the place /people around you! See north pe you don't have good colleges/IT infrastructure or other facilities that's the major reason people come to south but despite coming here I see north indians bossing around here "idhar auto wale kyu hindi nahi bolte?" ,"Zomato ka ladka tamil me kyu baath karta hai?" ,"In log chwaal-chwaal-chwaal kyu khate...khane toh hamre jaisa hona cahiye!" Boss aap log hosh me hai ki nahi?? Why will a random guy in TN/Vizag/bengaluru will talk to you in hindi or have alu ki paratha with makkan??

->Just tell me, how many festivals have you attended in the south? Can you say the names of places without making fun out of it? Have you visited local temples to see how the pooja pathathi happens? It's not about difficulty in learning languages it is about mindsets! If a South Indian lives in North for 2years he will speak hindi/mingle with locals well but none of you are yielding to locality even after 5-10years of stay!

Tamil people live in delhi/mumbai or other places inside our home we live tamil but do we go to streets and demand ki why auto wala isn't speaking to me in English? Why is my house-help not talking in english? Or why I don't get good sambar and masala dosai in delhi/jharkhand/Bihar??

Does it even make sense for your demands? See realistic demands like good infrastructure/job opportunity/transport etc if you ask for - we can ensure that to be provided(of course it's way better than north). I am not saying ki south is like Sri Ayodhya, even we have our own limitations, improvements which we are open to accept but we get irritated with the "head Strong" mindset of North indians and "trying to bend" south into your ways!

Come to reality, come to the grounds, feel the people then you won't feel excluded anyway!

But if you still keep your chest high and keep bossing around be ready to face hostility! ~Honest A form a Indian from south 🌷

Shift to Hyderabad, it is much better in these cases, you can openly ask to use English in meetings. Usually most companies have clear guidelines to use English in official meetings. In fact even local folks many times even in casual settings, speak in English just so as to include you in the conversation. Hyderabad is much more inclusive and welcoming than other souther IT cities. And there are many reasons for that, one reason is that population here is already a mixed population- Telugu is not the only local language; and many here are migrants themselves from AP, so it much better amalgamation of culture here I feel.

I understand the feeling of exclusion especially in meetings where everyone needs to be on the same page. And I'm sorry this happened to you. Here's the thing though...have you tried making an effort to pick up a bit of Tamil atleast. Respect goes both ways and when you're new to a place a little effort to understand a new culture is appreciated.

Second there are things in the south you shouldn't do which you may end up doing accidentally because it's considered okay to do this up north. I say this because I've seen northies do this frequently when interacting with tamilians and people here find it uncomfortable.

1. I've seen northies bring up caste topics a lot. Like identifying someone's caste based on their names. This has happened a few times an always with northies. Look south people do also caste based ideas but they don't openly discuss it. People don't point to people and say your name is this so you're this caste. They're usually quiet about things like this
2. Politics in the north and south are different so maybe stay away from those topics which might make people a little unfriendly to you.
3. Food habits. Zoho is right now only serving vegetarian food. But the population there is significantly non vegetarian. Again so many north indians I meet have an opinion on southern food habits and consumption of meat. You need to shut up.
4. South indians and religious but their faith is limited to home. They usually don't openly discuss these things with colleagues. I've seem way too many northie colleagues discuss religion and end up offending other people.

Look maybe you're not guilty of all this. But if you think you may have done any of these things simply because it's more acceptable to do this up north then you need to change some ways to fit in.

If your issues are just limited to not following the language, I'll advise you to pick up a few tamil words and throw it around from time to time to show that you do accept the linguistic identity of this place. Anywhere you go people will communicate in a language that they're comfortable with. It's upto you try to make your situation better.

They are generally very hostile omg

When you are in Rome be a Roman If you just follow this
You won't feel unsafe anywhere in the world