Ram comes from the south

Hindi is spoken by majority of people in India, it is our national language, says one. Oh! don't be a fool, there is no national language in India and we have many official languages. You don't have any rights to force me to learn Hindi, says another. Amidst all the hot debates, I will share a funny anecdote here, very much from my own experience. 

I hail from Coimbatore, a city in Tamil Nadu. The story I am about to share happened in 2006. Until then, the farthest I had travelled north was Hyderabad. I got selected for PhD in Taiwan and the first thing I had to do was to get my visa from the embassy, located in Delhi (Now, they have one in Chennai). I can't speak a word in Hindi (albeit passing Rashtrabasha, a level 3 exam conducted by Hindi prachar sabha, an organization to spread Hindi learning). But, I had a cousin living in Delhi then and so I was a bit relaxed. 

After a 44 hour train journey through parts of the country I had never been to, I reached Delhi. My cousin picked me up from the train station and I stayed with his family throughout the trip. Before going to the embassy for visa, I had to get my degree certificates authenticated by the human resources department (HR) and then by the ministry of external affairs (MEA). My cousin took me to the HRD first and the process was pretty quick. Next, we went to the MEA, where we were welcomed by a long queue. They picked up my certificates first and asked me to wait. It took more than 3 hours and we were still waiting. 

I was worried if I can still get the task done. Since my cousin had his education in the north and was living in Delhi for a while, he is fluent in Hindi. He went to talk to one of the security guards, who after some discussion allowed me alone to go in and talk to the officer in-charge. I went in to find a large room filled with heaps of certificates over a large table and a guy sitting there and signing documents like a robot. Quite nervous about getting my certificates signed (and without any damage or loss from that big pile), I said in a feeble voice, "Excuse me sir".

He raised his head slowly and said "Jai Sriram" (Loosely translates to praise the lord). Not knowing that people in the north use this to greet each other and probably not hearing the Jai clearly, I quickly replied "Yes, I am Sriram" (thinking in my mind, how this guy knows my name). 

He gave me a perplexed look before continuing the conversation and giving the signed documents back. I am sure, he might not have even imagined (lord) Sriram as a South Indian ;)