I never had a chance to look at the things like Caste System, Regionalism, Religionalism(Regional Terrorism) etc until I reached the land of opportunities U.S.A. Telugu people get divided between themselves because we always have different reasons that avoid us from being united.
M.S in US - As soon as I started interacting with students from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, I started to realize the part that people tend to defend their own caste people, own state/region people and are biased with their opinions which was very difficult for me to digest initially but I got used to it later.
First Scenario: Chiru fans vs Balayya fans
First such scenario that I encountered was the famous Chiranjeevi-Bala Krishna fans supporting their respective hero's in every day-day activity that they get involved. We went to watch 'Tagore' and my friend got this poster of Chiranjeevi for free and he sticked the poster in our living room. A few days later we had a Birthday party at our place and everybody arrived(telugus, northies, tamilians, etc). After the cake party, everybody left but Bala Krishna fans were hurt to see Chiranjeevi's poster in our living room and they wanted us to remove the poster, if not either they will do it or they will not visit our apartment again.
I used to watch movies which were hits. Initially when I was young because I liked dance, I wanted to watch Chiranjeevi movie songs at the minimum and watched couple of Bala Krishna movies because they were hits and also he was next to Chiranjeevi in his dances.
Second scenario is related to idol worship(Chiranjeevi fans). One of our consultancy room mates got a job and he threw a party; the party started off well and during the party, there are so many different topics that people discuss and once such discussion thread started between two persons.
A: Did you guys read Great Andhra news,Ravi Teja is 47 yrs old and he still looks so young.
B: Who cares how Ravi Teja looks.
A: He is 47, Chiru is 53 but man there is no comparison in fitness.
B: Why are you comparing Chiru with Ravi Teja? Ravi Teja has one or two hits and people give a damn about his films and he doesn't care about other people.
A: Chiru should stop films,he is so fat.
B: What do you know about Chiru?
Arguments get heated up and B attacks A. Other people stopped them from fighting and then B calms down and both tell sorry to each other.B explains if you do not know about something, please just don't comment and I like Chiru because he is a social worker. End of scenario 2.
Third Scenario: Kamal fans Vs Rajni fans.
Similar to second scenario but this time it was strictly restricted to discussions and arguments which started around 10 pm and lasted till 4 am in the morning. The conversation basically started from Actor vs Star but ended up with arguments/counter arguments 'Who is the bigger Icon in Tamil film Industry?'
Fourth Scenario: Cricket Sachin fans vs Ganguly fans.
People tend to forget the contributions made by the players to the team and country's popularity in the sport and they are more inclined in their favorite player's stats and comparison with other players.
Fifth Scenario: Cricket India vs Pakistan 2003 World Cup Match
During my MS days, we subscribed for the world cup and everybody used to come by our place to watch the matches. India Vs Pakistan Match and we had few Pakistani students watch the match with us and it was a communal riot @ our place. The match was like a see-saw and people couldn't control emotions and it was a war or words.
There are many such scenarios namely Northies Vs Southies, Brahmins Vs Non-Brahmins and the list goes on. The spice of the season is Telangana Vs Andhra. The topic has gained center stage for quite some days now and yet there is no solution. Being a frog in the well, I never had an opportunity to look at a map like shown below until the Telangana Revolution started.
Not sure how much it affects the country overall, not sure how much it affects both the regions, not sure whether Telangana has a leader in case if a separate state is formed.
Our PM termed demanding a state in the way it is being done as 'Regional Terrorism'. There are more questions to get answers for me than to think of a supporting separate state at this moment. I wish there was some one who already put together a detailed analysis of pros and cons, otherwise I would have to find this info myself and discuss in a separate blog based on my collection of information form various websites.
Have fun
Cheers
