Freedom of expression!!

The title here may be a wee too bit heavy....but then offlate I have been witness to a certain incident of prejudice and intolerance!!
I have lived all my life in Bangalore. I take pride in being called a B'lorean. I can speak the local lingo and have imbibed it in d way I speak English also :)....Coz being a Mallu, u kinda fear adding the Mallu accent to English ...but a B'lore upbringing has added its effects to my English....so the 1st thing u will hear me utter to most of my female counterparts is "What ya" :)

On the 31st of December, 2010, I went to attend a new year party in Ramanagaram, located around 50 kms away from B'lore. There were party games organized for children and parents with the MC anchoring the programme in English. What happened a while later was that we had Kannada activists or so they called themselves hijack the stage, kick the MC offstage and then actually stage a performance on some chakravarthi, making complete fools outta themselves and sadly of tat historical character as well. That they wanted a stage was pretty evident, but to torture the audience to such a performance and that too when the performer is not even in his senses!! They later went on to abuse the MC for his English baashe and delivered a lecture on y we shud not forget who we are and as proud Kannadigas, we should not allow any non-Kannada programme.

They then played Kannada songs and were dancing to tat on stage in their drunken stupor...one of them even had the audacity to get down from the stage and hug and kiss an eight year old gal, standing close to the stage.

The programme was off for most people, who were in a hurry to leave, forgetting the time and money spent, rather than having to witness such hooliganism or further trouble.

Love for your region is not a bad thing, but its also important to be tolerant to other regions or languages. Its a sad state when u have to be a silent witness to such fanaticism!!