The Aryan invasion

Centuries back the first Aryan invasion happened in Tamil Nadu in the guise of  a  service industry and in spite the colossal changes the society had through the period,  like the persistent cockroach  this age old institution still flourishes  with greater intensity embracing the nooks and corners  of our land. The Suhk Rams, Mangarams or the Maghilals continue to provide the service with their progenies occupying the same little space known as the pawn shops!  Similarly the Sowcarpet and Mint area of Chennai had been invaded and  dominated by the Aryans who control the wholesale trading. With their own festivals, tradition and customs and even creating a Tamil lingo of their own  they crafted  a solid niche in the Tamil land! 

Then there was an invasion from further north! The men from Nepal, whom we call as goorkas came in to protect us from  nightly nuisance from unwanted elements intruding in our good night sleep! Their shrill whistles  at various points in the night instead of jolting us brought in plenty of peace and security!  My first encounter with a foreign professional living in Chennai was at the famous 'mat bazaar'  and he was a dentist. My husband was there for a  consultation on the strong recommendation of my father in law  as 'the cheapest and the best in town'. The man with the name Dr. sung Sui ( don't remember it rightly) sitting in his little but neatly stacked up cubicle (only the Chinese are capable of) was a person who wouldn't waste his time and ours too and was right on his job from the word 'go'! My in law was right and it was the quickest and efficient session any one can have with a dentist and at reasonable charges!!

The seedling for beauty parlours were sown in our conservative city by the invasion of the girls  from north east with cute little nose on their big square face talking sweetly in pidgin Tamil. They were the forerunners for the concept of ‘beautification is also skin deep’ and the concept spread like wild fire  among the women folk thus enhancing the reputation and rates of their organisation!

The others were the few Chinese restaurants with  funny names who had the same genre of waiters serving us noodles and chicken Manchurian et al.

And this was the 70s show  of invasion by Aryans and foreign professionals but never in my wild dream did I anticipate  a whopping jolt lurking around the corner!

While we accepted these people as a matter of fact with their specialised professions I was awe struck  to see a north Indian  face in  my very own local sweet meat shop! With his minimum Tamil it was a dumb mimicry show between both of us. I pointing out the sweets and he asking me how much! The business was over in minutes but I missed the usual ‘tete et tete’ that usually happened with the counter personnel on the freshness of the sweets and  how my family enjoyed the one I bought last time. The person would inform me about the new introduction of the season tempting me, right royally, with  a sample! Yes the bill climbed up but I come out of the shop smiling with the lingering taste of the sampled sweet, uncaring about the extra  calories just added!

We were cursing ourselves when a huge apartment block was coming up opposite to our house! We have to grin and bear the dust, noise, pollution  and reverberating vehicles delivering sundry materials day in and day out at least for a year!! Since the police would not allow heavy material vehicles during the busy day  the delivery especially of granite stones created a thunder when we were in deep slumber shaking us out of our night slumber! With the night sleep gone we had to sit around blurry eyed trying to talk and drink some water after missing the morning walks and the yoga!

 If this was a nuisance I was bewildered by the work force. Yes you guessed it right They were  mostly from the north of the vindyas. But this time the influx was more wholesome. Their families had come to stay in the tin roof shed  provided by the contractor they settled down with their belongings and little ones.  I wondered why do they undergo so much of hardship  immigrating to this God forsaken shed? Were there no manual jobs available in their own location?

Or is there a paucity of manual workers in Tamil Nadu?

I later learnt that our own work force took things for granted since the supply was lesser than the demand and hence were  dictating terms regarding  rates and timings. Some ingenious contractor who had visited north found out about the measly wages paid to the manual labour there and bent  upon breaking this southern monopoly should have  convinced the northerners to give it a try in the beautiful south ! That which started as  a trickle turned into a flood and unawares we were caught in a huge deluge!

In came this dedicated labour force who found that the south Indians were better pay masters and the freedom they enjoyed in here was far more better than under their slavish masters of their place. They wanted to prove that for a lesser wage they were willing  to give them better and reliable service!

Like ants they started their work early in the morning (unheard of by our work force) while the cooking was taken care of a by a lady who doubled as the helping hand later in the day!

Sunday  was a day  for a good meal and buying rice from the local ration card holders. They created a contact in the locality with a person who was capable of providing enough and more of  free ration rice for Re.5 per kg.

I still wonder how the young children survived in this dusty  ambience without any sickness. It was indeed the 'survival of the fittest'.   They ran around, played on the sand heaps  jumped over the pipes wiped their noses with the shirt and skirt ends and generally were happy. After a ritual bath and a change of clothing the  evenings were spent in cuddling the little ones  with plenty of gossiping and laughter in their own tongue!

Like the locusts prying on the crops  they spread everywhere including the whole sale vegetable markets and big textile stores! The man selling tomato missed the Tamil accent and it was funny to listen to the price in a different slang! On the other hand it was a free linguistic exchange for our traders too! At least they learnt by heart all the numbers up to hundred in a Hindi of their own! This was to lure the Aryan customers who now abound the market. "Two kg of peas  'aasa' only" they would tempt the Hindi speaking buyers! (while 'assi' is 80  'aasa' means desire!)   So much for Hindi agitation of 1965!

We were at our little village just to have an idea of the renovation of the chapel happening there. The work was going in full swing. We usually sit at the portico of the chapel after the prayers for a chat. There was a young chap, unknown to me, accosting me with an endearing, " didi...... balo aachen?" (" sister how are you?") ( Someone among my village relatives should have told him that we had lived in Calcutta)

 The language which I spoke  40 years back hit me  and without batting an eye the reply involuntarily  came out  from me  "balo tho, thumi kemon aaccho?" (" I am fine how are you?"). I was really taken aback by a Bengali work man! Bengalis are supposed to be intellectuals with the least inclination for manual work!.... Is this man a Bengali? A Bengali young man generally has a  craving for his adda  (chat sessions at street corners) with friends  discussing veraciously about his football and Carl Jung. But every rule has an exception and our Bengali man who was doing his first year graduation had to discontinue due to family situation and one of the supervisor, distant relative of his brought him to Tamil Nadu. With his impeccable work for the chapel and a smiling face he created a rapport  with the people in the street and on a Bengali festival day he even cooked  in his three brick stove some special sweet dish and shared it with them.

The next day morning, instead of the usual kolam, the front of my house  was decorated with a lotus rangoli of colour powders and the words "welcome" arching the top space!. The sincere affection in finding a person who could speak a bit of his language should have filled his heart and I was not sure if my broad smile compensated the extent of his joy!

You might come to the conclusion that the  Aryan invasion is  thorough in Tamil Nadu when it has reached my 'shop less' sleepy little village  and a heavy out flow of revenue from the south to the north is imperative.

But the worry about the outflow need not hassle anyone since a  greater invasion of a different kind is happening  in the land of the Tamils!  Where we lose in lakhs of rupees, by the manual work force's influx, we merrily compensate through multi crores revenue by a different kind of invasion! This money making industry is the medical field which attracts the Aryans to this land! With the medical facilities at  its nadir  in their own states, they rely on the high quality service provided by our highly skilled  speciality doctors and superbly  maintained hospitals! And when it is the question of the health of their  families no one wants to compromise  and the expenses does not matter at all! Apart from the medical expertise it has created another linguistic service industry where upon umpteen number of younger generation qualify themselves in the lingo of the patients' choice happily conversing in their own language providing the comfort zone for the sick in an unknown land! Even at the point of registration the board says so in their own lingo!

Hence dear friends where we have lost in manual services, we have well compensated in our own counter Dravidian invasion through an intellectual skill set.