Allow me to explain the rather racist title. Aren’t there racists in south india? Of course, yes. Our chief minister is a fantastic example for this. What happened in air India, however is something worth mentioning. This post is in no way intended to take a dig at north Indians or insult any racial community but just named for the sake of calling a spade a spade. I find this attitude of companies that have no context sensitive approach to things completely insulting and pointless.
The story goes like this. I fly to Singapore often. Almost every month for work reasons. I always fly Singapore Airlines. Their service and professionalism is one of the best ive seen in times from any company or service provider. Luck sometimes does not favor you. Its one of those times when a sudden Singapore travel was scheduled i did not get tickets on Singapore Airlines in the last minute and good old Air India came to the rescue. Thanks to recession the 3000 rs. cheaper ticket compared to jet made Air India the default choice.
Never in my life have i seen such “i don’t give a flaming fuck” attitude in a service that it just beats the crap out of me. I’m writing this blog post barely 2 hours after i landed in chennai after my Air India flight. I don’t want the forget the spec of gems i was thrown at in the form of service so let me bring up as many star pointers before i forget them…
1. Chennai is the capital of Tamilnadu. Tamil is the Official Language of Tamilnadu & Chennai. Singapore has close to approx. 1/3rd tamil population, tamil is an official language there as well.
2. The crowd you are serving is all tamil crowd. Not one north indian passenger, not one white/black/asian/hispanic passenger.
Given this context what is the need for an out and out Hindi announcement on the PA system. The facial expressions of half the people in the flight was blank. They were oblivious to your communication as our politicians are oblivious to accusations and shame. Why can’t you use some common sense. Singapore Airlines is not even an indian company. The first thing they do when you get on their flight is a tamil announcement. All their menu cards are tamil too. Actually they’re written in Tamil/Malay/English.
I find it highly irritating when someone tries to coax a language down someone’s throat when its 100% irrelevant to a given context. I agree with the fact that Hindi is our national language and its a responsibility we should carry to know it. Personally i do but it is unfair to expect every tom, dick and harry to do so because you are dealing with india. A country where the number of official languages recognized for communication across states is 14. Its not like you really want to spread hindi an shit. You even switched OFF the safety announcement when the hindi version was playing, bravo!
I have many more wonderful pointers to discuss but all of it will make this post a long and boring one. I will follow this up with another exclusive “Air India” bashing post.
And yes, i will also add. All of the crew in the Air India flight spoke good galeej tamil but preferred to speak hindi and spoke tamil only when responded to in tamil or say a blank response. Seriously WTF?!
Amen..
maxdavinci says:
I’ll reserve my comments for later.
This post just seems like someone getting pissed for a Hindi announcement in a flight.
again just going by the content of this post only!
5th June 2009 at 8:57 pm
Dilip Muralidaran says:
@maxdavinci: Just a small correction. I’m perfectly okay with hindi announcements. I’m not ok however making announcements in hindi where no one understands them. I think to talk to somebody in a language they wont understand is heights of indecency.
5th June 2009 at 4:45 am
Anurag Bhateja says:
What I feel is, they should use the local language. If it is Tamil, then the announcement should be in tamil too. They can make it in thre languages! English + hindi + the local language. Whats the problem in that for them?
Anyway, it is better to keep mind cool and collect such things
Good going Dilip
5th June 2009 at 5:43 am
peevee says:
Dilip.
I’m with you. When Singapore airlines can have text in all their official languages, why not AIR INDIA, at least when it flies from Chennai to Singapore.
The bad part is.. These guys will expect one to GO TO HINDI CLASS, even to ask a glass of water in TamilNadu or any regional state for that matter. Thanks for the POST.
5th June 2009 at 6:32 am
Prakash Narayanan says:
Dilip,
I couldn’t agree more with you. These guys could just use common sense to their work. But then again if they had some they wouldn’t be working for Air India would they. “Be a Roman in Rome”.
5th June 2009 at 7:15 am
Common Sense vs National Language | DesiPundit says:
[...] Dilip Muralidharan wonders why there are no announcements in Tamil on a Chennai-Singapore Air India flight. [...]
5th June 2009 at 4:40 pm
Vijay Kumar says:
Yep, if Indian Railways can do it, why not Air India?
5th June 2009 at 6:35 pm
Vishal says:
Singapore Airlines is national airline of Singapore. And Tamil/Malay/English are among the official languages in Singapore. So announcements in those three languages makes sense in Singapore Airlines.
While Air India is a state-owned company in India. And India has 14 official languages. Do you expect the menu cards in Air India to be written in 14 languages?
If the announcements were made solely in Hindi, I agree with you that it’s “wrong”. But if they made announcements in Hindi and English — and didn’t cater to the majority of the travelers in the plane (i.e. Tamil) — I think you are quibbling.
5th June 2009 at 12:28 am
Which Main? what Cross? says:
I think it’s not what you think it is. They are just lazy.
The Air India ads/hoardings on the other hand is what I would call racist. The direct flight ones.
5th June 2009 at 12:21 pm
Sabu says:
If you are peeved with them for not announcing in Tamil, dont travel with them. Even if the tickets are expensive on an alternate carrier use their services if it matters to you . Seriously vote with your wallet.
And using terms like a north-indian racist pig, I am not sure what is the point.
5th June 2009 at 12:23 pm
BRS says:
There is of course, no concept of national language in India. What we have are a number of official languages, and a constitutional directive that the business of central government has to be carried out in Hindi and English.
5th June 2009 at 4:54 pm
Dilip Muralidaran says:
@Vijay Kumar: Yes, the same attitude with IRCTC website too, sigh!
@Vishal: I’m not quibbling. The point is safety. When you make safety announcement the sole purpose of this announcement is to ensure the safety and well being of the passengers. When you already are well aware of your target audience and which language they speak, not communicating in that language is a stupid mistake. I wonder how a ISO 9001:2000 organization like Air India can afford to do such stuff. Ideally in india, it has to be Hindi + English + Local language of that state you are departing from i.e, tamil for tamilnadu, telugu for andhra pradesh etc.,
@Which main, what cross: Yes, like i said i did not mean to insult them as racist but their actions justify an accusation of racism since thats exactly what they did.
@Sabu: Not traveling with them was not an option. Given an option i would NEVER travel with them. The point here is when you cater a service to the public you need to use common sense. What about people who can NEVER AFFORD singapore airlines but only air india. Are you telling them to go face the inconvenience of announcements in a language they dont know?
@BRS: I think logically the concept of national language is quite complicated since we have so many. Like i said before Hindi + English + Local language of the state is the best approach. This is precisely what singapore airways and jet airways does.
5th June 2009 at 1:54 pm
Krish Ashok says:
I would not go so far as to call Air India racist. At the end of the day, they are a Govt. of India controlled company that is simply following regulation, one that mandates the use of the “national” language. The real problem is usually somewhere else – mostly in the area of local empowerment. I flew to Colombo from Chennai on Jetlite, and even there, they made announcements in Hindi and English, and not in Tamil or for that matter SInhala. Some airlines, like Lufthansa, for all their other flaws, do get the localization spot on right. They have local language announcements everywhere in the world. It will be Tamil, German and English in Chennai, and French, German and English in Toronto. But then, they have a corporate policy of being multilingual.
All it typically takes is some local empowerment. If the local manager in charge can determine what languages to use during announcements, then the problem disappears. But then, Govt of India companies generally don’t have a culture of local empowerment.
5th June 2009 at 1:01 pm
Dilip Muralidaran says:
@Krish Ashok: Yes, i get your point. That explanation however kinda seems to be a lousy excuse for air india to get away with such stupidity. Not just air india, every other airlines that adheres to such actions that make no sense.
5th June 2009 at 2:13 pm
Neo says:
I came across this site and the very first and second post put me off.
Not everyone who doesn’t talk in Tamil is a racist and not everyone who is hated by everyone is a Brahmin. Like someone commented, its always cool to point fingers and make fun of one particular community. Just because you know for sure they will not hit back. Now you know who the real racists are.
5th June 2009 at 1:50 pm
Subah says:
More than racism, it’s a concoction of inefficiency, unprofessional outlook and care-a-damn attitude of people who are grossly insincere to their jobs.
5th June 2009 at 8:47 am
South Indian says:
Yes, North Indians are racist pigs and Hindi chauvinist fanatics. The only solution is to agitate to remove Hindi as a so-called “official” language and ensure that English is made part of the EIGHTH SCHEDULE of the Indian Constitution. In any case, even the Indian armed forces uses English in all official communication. Hindi is merely ceremonial. Even the marketing and advertising of Hindi movies are done in English. An agitation to remove Hindi as an official language is inevitable by South Indians and Indians from the North Eastern states who face North Indian Hindi linguistic apartheid. The bastards want to impose THEIR REGIONALISM on everybody under the pretext of “nationalism”. North Indian sons of bitches who come to Cochin and talk in Hindi should be thrashed to pulp. This is the only solution which North Indians will understand.
5th June 2009 at 1:30 pm
Dilip Muralidaran says:
@Neo: Sorry the site put u off, but then im not here to please everyone am i?
@Subah: Probably yes, i just wanted to yell and nothing stops me from calling air india as racist. I have circumstantial evidence.
@South Indian: I disagree with you and yes i would never hang out with you. I accept hindi as the national language of india simply because its the most largely spoken language in this nation. No, i would not thrash anyone for speaking a language because im not a racist, like you. Sorry to be not on your side. I think your thoughts are not aimed at development but rather to terrorize people. It will never work.
5th June 2009 at 3:48 pm
Senthil Durai T says:
Hi
I agree with Murali.
Recently even in our office we were discussing this.
When a flight flies from Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai,Thiruchy Announcements should be in TAMIL + English + anyother language the Indian Government wants.
If India cares for its Citizens, then it would use State language of the arrival and destination airports.
It was so happy to see the Safety Menu in Singapore airlines in Tamil..
Also When I flew from Hyderabad , the Food Menu was printed also in Telugu.
When does our Hindian Airlines will understand all such customer issues ?
Due to this, I never recommend Indian Airlines /Airindia to my friends who want to fly out from India.
regards
Senthil
http://www.tamilnation.org/
5th June 2009 at 2:33 am
Senthil Durai T says:
Murali
Hindi is “One” of the National Languages because our “Nation” ( Indian Union ) spreads from Kashmir to Kanyakumari
Regards
Quoting Thiru Annadurai ( Former CM of TN )
Annadurai was a recognised leader of DMK. In his opinion, Hindi was a regional language like any other. It had “no special merit”; in fact, it was less developed than other Indian languages and less suited in a time of rapid advances in science and technology. To the argument that more Indians spoke Hindi than other Indian language, Anna sarcastically answered,
“ “If we had to accept the principle of numerical superiority while selecting our national bird, the choice would have fallen not on the peacock but on the common crow”.
————————–
” The intensity of anti-Hindi protests created concern among the Congress leaders. On 31 January 1965, a group of leaders including S.Nijalingappa, Chief minister of Mysore, Atulya Ghosh, BENGAL Congress leader, Sanjeeva Reddy, Union Minister and K. Kamaraj, the Congress president met in Bangalore and issued an appeal not to force Hindi on non-Hindi speaking areas as they believed it might endanger the unity of the country. ”
====================================
5th June 2009 at 2:39 am
Max says:
dilip:
thanks for sharing your experience with air india. it’s a reminder of why i never use air india for my travel needs. i have only one quibble, a fairly major one with your post. hindi is not india’s national language. the fact is india does not have a national language. english and hindi are both considered india’s official languages. this may seem like nitpicking but it is not. once we southern indians start believing the nonsense that is peddled by northindians it’s a slippery slope to eventual hindi hegemony. don’t give away the political and emotionally loaded term “national language” so easily. if it wasn’t for our tamilian ancestors in the 60s and 70s, we’d all be speaking hindi.
keep up the good work
max
5th June 2009 at 9:30 pm
braniff airline says:
Oh my Gosh, Hindu’s people are very racist even in USA, they are imigrants, that they think they are first clase people and olso they think they are very smart people, capaable to do werever they want and they like to descriminate against other minorities because we dont, come from from the same country and olso we belive in diferent religion
5th June 2009 at 4:53 am
ravi says:
hey dilip,
I want to correct you. Hindi is not our national language.
Refer to this post:
http://india.targetgenx.com/2007/10/14/you-think-you-know-what-indias-national-language-is/
And a slew of articles opposing mindless hindi imperialism are here:
http://karnatique.blogspot.com/search/label/Hindification
5th June 2009 at 4:53 pm
Hindu says:
For alll the fuckkers who dont know Hindi being an Indian.. all you need to do is jus go and fcuk yr mother ..cmon fast fast..
5th June 2009 at 10:34 am
hindu says:
for all the fukkkers who dont know Hindi being an Indian … all you need to do is ..jus go and fukck you mother …cmonn fas fastt
5th June 2009 at 10:36 am
indian says:
Hindi is NOT the national language of India. Period. It’s just one of the official languages.
5th June 2009 at 10:27 am
Kiran says:
Hindi is just the official language of central government not the national language of India. There is an important difference. Yes there are Hindi chavunists in India . Central government collects tax from everyone why should a tamil pay tax to this government and be humiliated like this >
5th June 2009 at 6:24 pm
Sidi says:
I hate Hindi Chauvinist Pigs! Just HATE them!
I’m a North Indian by the way. Born into a Hindi state. But I hate it when we try thrusting the language down people’s throats.
5th June 2009 at 5:00 pm
barani says:
most of the indians believe hindi is india’s national language but to Be honest india doesn’t have any national language, so there is nothing shame of not knowing hindi, does any feel shame of not knowing India’s most ancient language tamil, r we expecting north indian to know tamil then why the f**kers expecting hindi from our throats. i can’t even accept the solution like railway system having 3 languages, in tamilnadu announcements/notice Board should be only in TAMIL and English(some hindians will think if english why not hindi, the same will be applicable to hindians too if u people can learn english why not tamil,so it’s beter not to compare hindi with english). there’s no need of hindi in the name of nationalism, even i hate my passport,pancard,currency,post card,central govt. aided bank every where hindi dominates, some where they will add the regional language and they’d say that they given equal rights, yaaru veeta yaaruda pangupoadurathu we don’t need the shit hindi that mean that i hate all north indians personally i don’t have grudges with them but i hate the people who expecting hindi from me if i retaliate the same can they tolerate, one are otherway each every indians need English so it’s better to English as lingua-franca everyone can keep their lang in their own state
as a tamilian i love india as north indians do, it doesn’t mean to show patriotism only via hindi there are lots more there, we are ready to learn hindi can north indians learn any of our south indian lang, still if u can’t tolerate better hindi people can lay-off, they can separate from rest of india there they can form their own govt with their own lang, in the name of nationalism, majority we can’t accept a lie as truth. really i obsessed by the attitude of indian govt
world is shrinking by technologies a lang hindi never can competitive with English not even with tamil but these north indian fools still forcing hindi on us, it’s time to wake-up our leaders like PaerAringar ANNADURAI, PERIYAR etc.
En karuthai pathivu seiya vaipalithatharku nandri
vazhga tamil, valarga tamil
5th June 2009 at 6:53 pm
aviano says:
I agree we INDIAN’s don’t have any National Language… But as for your kind information Hindi and English are the only two official languages described in our constitution… I am living in Chennai for more than 2 years now… and i love this city… No one forces me to learn Tamil, even though it’s hard to make locals understand what we want to say in English.. And yes you said that flight was all packed with tamil speaking passangers, but you can’t expect that in every flight schedule.. Do you need Air India to have commentry in all the 30 main languages??? i guess nott…
5th June 2009 at 1:44 pm
KKN says:
In Europe and almost everywhere elsewhere, the Flight Safety Manual features 10 LANGUAGES. In India, the flight Safety manual of Air India features Hindi along with several other non-English languages, but no other Indian languages. The flight Safety manuals of Kingfisher, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Sahara also feature only English and Hindi.
Same with announcments. They announce in a north Indian language, Hindi even in south Indian flights without the official language of the state.
If Air India, Indian Airlines and other airlines in India, go bankrupt, it may be a good thing after all – their racist and Hindi chavinism mentality should serve their downfall.
5th June 2009 at 1:17 pm
aviano says:
Air India and Indian Airlines are not a state owned passenger service.. They have to make announcements in our Official languages and they are doing a great job.. And if you call just North India as racist then think about it again.. Every state in INDIA has a racist population.. for more check out the blog on our website http://www.aviano.in/blog.htm
5th June 2009 at 5:53 pm
vishal says:
Hi,
What the author has said is correct. Guys it is a common sense it is an International Flight Please make your announcements first In English and then in the official language. English should be made compulsory.
5th June 2009 at 11:22 pm
Dilip Muralidaran says:
@aviano: There are several indian & non-indian airlines that use local languages of both departing and arrival destinations. your excuse holds no water for air india’s stupidity. Singapore – Chennai flights have mostly tamil folks, period. Disprove this fact if you can.
KKN: I agree, i wish air india ceases to exist.
5th June 2009 at 7:07 am
Atul says:
The same racism exists in Tamil Nadu where these tamils black pigs will not respond in hindi even if they knw hndi … moreover this LTTE attitude is existing everywhere in TN .. students who goto TN for thier grads knw it very well and now are aware of this fact … now most of them hate and are anti southindia just as tamilians are AntiAryan + AntiHindi + AntiNorthindian mentality. grddpurrrgrahpuutttee is such a nonsense to speak … only pigs do it when they are starving.
5th June 2009 at 3:59 am
Rajendra says:
yes .. its true that … hating hindi speaking people has been a long custom prevailing in TN .. moreover in these tamil movies .. they speak against india and national language openly … but i still wonder why these people dont keep tamil names … or thier so called oldest culture had no names .. so they have to keep hindi names for thier children.
5th June 2009 at 4:04 am
Rajendra says:
Names like … Sunil Kumar … RAJA singh .. dilip … huh … give me a break… just like a chinese guy named michael … we will have a tamiliam named rahul sharma.
5th June 2009 at 4:06 am
Rajendra says:
tamil is just a tribal language got imported from srilanka (land of ravan)… india is rambhoomi … land of RAMA. .. so all those son of ravan … even if u apply nivea face whitening creme 10000000 times then too u will not be a hindi guy… they r good looking and smarter than you black pigs.
5th June 2009 at 4:10 am
Arun says:
I thought North Indians are tribals too, one can tune onto the hindi channels and see their tribal affairs, still that part of india is in stone age and god knows when they get updated. Speaking about Delhi, and Common wealth games 2010, some International atheletes have already cancelled their participation,,,,a perfect example that these north indian bastards are still tribals in mind and action. Hindi—-is a whore’s language.
5th June 2009 at 10:02 pm
Arun says:
I am not a tamilian but, northies, you must know that tamil population has three nobel laureates, why do you compare you faggot brains with others,, I mean dont even compare it with somalians, somalians are very good at hijacking, send your mothers to please the somalians,,,,bastards.
5th June 2009 at 10:05 pm
liberalcynic says:
First of all, there are many who believe that making Hindi the official language is arbitrary in itself. Having said that, here we are.
While I feel I am fortunate to have learned Hindi (am a Tam), how is it a free country when we are ordered to know a certain language?
Someone in your comment section suggested making the announcements in Hindi, English and the local language. Please don’t! Those announcements are annoying enough as they are. I wish we could sign a waiver for those instructions so that we don’t have to be interrupted in the unlikely event that we have actually caught some sleep
5th June 2009 at 4:18 am
Alex says:
India will be truly free when india is divided in to pieces. May be pakistan/chinese nuke bombay the filth of indian racism.
That is the only way. Indians can’t fix india. It needs destruction and occupation to change these monkeys.
5th June 2009 at 2:31 am
harshi says:
i agree with you dilip.people need to converse in a common language where everyone accepts.i get ignored by most of the people in my place just because i don’t speak hindi and insulted by tamil ones coz i dont read and write tamil wherelse i can speak it well.
1.its always like”ne idha urala thaney perandha-enna unaku tamil varadha”
2.i look more like north indian so when they speak in hindi and when i say”i cn understand a bit but am not fluent”they reply”kya rey-app india ka national language nehui bolah tho kya indian rey”
people should speak somehtin in common !:-)
5th June 2009 at 9:14 pm