2 States

Just read Chetan Bhagats '2 States'. It is a very funny, very entertaining, very easy to relate to and hard to put down book :) Being a Bangalorean, the digs at south Indians (geeky, ugly, unsophisticated, stiff, and many more...) didn't go down all that well with me, but then again the Punjabis in the book were portrayed as a bunch of ostentatious, greedy gluttons without too much in the brains department and CB claims that its only because he loves us all he takes such liberties :))

And in the meantime, Andhra Pradesh has been split into 2 states, with the creation of 'Telangana'. Like our country isn't divided along so many lines already :( Every time the government gives in to demands for a new state, the seeds for several more splits are sown :((. I met a friendly guy from one of India's not so friendly neighbouring countries in Dubai recently. He told me that he had heard rumours that a new country(!!!! yes country, not even state) was going to be created from a part of Kerala, and asked me if that was true!!

The timing was just a coincidence, but both the book and the news about the newly created 'Telangana' state underline the fact that we still see ourselves as so-and-so community first and Indians next :( And the whole world seems to be aware of this. Whatever happened to "United we stand, divided we fall" which we had to repeat aloud so many times in school??