Kos kos pe badale pani, char kos pe vani

The title of the thread translates to "The taste of water changes every 3 kms, and the language changes every 12 km"

It is said that dialect, language, food, lifestyle etc changes for every 12 kms in India. Probably in the rest of the world too, but in India because of the diverse cultures, the changes are more prominent. Born and raised in a land where Asaf Jahis and Nizams have ruled for 5-6 centuries, I was exposed to lot of food, lifestyle, language variations right from my childhood. Also, those rulers laid a strong base for Marvaris, Gujaratis in their region and so my exposure was even more wide and I am more than proud to have such lifestyle.

Also, my family has had relations with those families and also with those from now, AP region. There were and are lot of get togethers, attending family functions together and helping each other. No religion-al, regional feelings ever came into the picture here. Lived with such secular feeling all throughout my life.

But one incident made me think about these things, deeply, very deeply. It so happened that I met a colleagues' wife in their home. One of the dishes that has a name X in my region has name Y in their region and X to them means a different dish. And it so happened that she had served me that X(my region's X) dish and after tasting it I said X is tasty. She just mocked me stating that it is not X, it is Y and in a very sarcastic tone. My colleague was present there and he was almost giving me a sarcastic smile, and it really hurt me a lot. Seeing that, he hid his emotions but his wife could not do so. This has happened quite a few years back, but it is still fresh in my mind. I never knew regional naming differences could be a source of mocking.

When someone engages in such mocking for political advantages, or when a person is illiterate and has no idea about the world except for his/her region, I understand. I would tell myself, that a person is trying to instigate others as in the first case or as in the later case, the person is naive, and has no idea about the 12 km rule. And is probably like a frog in a well.

But, what about the rest? The female I have mentioned is educated, has a professional degree, roamed across the country, works as a well paid professional and hails from a decently rich, educated family. What would I tell about her to myself? Should I say she is a mere literate and her education didn't really help her analyse a particular scenario?

Kos kos pe badale pani, char kos pe vani