A favourite grouse of my fellow North-east Indians(many with an acute case of angry nigger syndrome) is that the rest of the countrymen know nothing about their area, confuse them with Nepalis or Chinese, think that tea grows in every backyard and so on and forth. That is, till they are reminded that they too know nothing about places like Kerala or Chhattisgarh and the people who live there. Because till about a decade or two back, the few times anyone ventured out was either to study, enrol their children in an educational institution or for health check-ups or cancer treatment in Vellore.
Besides, ignorance about other states and the geography of the country is endemic everywhere. My favourite example being an NCO from Signals Corps of the Indian Army who travelled with me on a train to Goa for some advanced training at the Army Signal Training Center in Bambolim.
An M.Sc. degree holder by his own admission, in his excitement of getting to see Goa and the sea, the first time in his life, he pestered me with numerous questions. One that particularly struck me was "After Goa it's the international border right?"
I thought about it and said, "Well yes, if you consider the sea as a maritime border!!" His face fell and remained so till the end of the trip. I think I dashed his hopes of seeing a real border!
Or maybe he thought the Goa was still a Portuguese enclave?? Or maybe even international Border between India and Portugal!!
But what astounded me the most about this ignorant Bumpkin is that he was from Signal Corps, the same people entrusted with communication in the Army !!
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