Bengaluru Resident Urges Empathy Towards Hindi Speakers: ‘Can We Be a Little Kind?’

A Bengaluru resident has shared a disheartening encounter on Reddit and urged people to be kind and understanding towards those who come from Hindi speaking belt. The incident, which unfolded in the city’s ISRO Layout, involved a north Indian pineapple vendor who faced hostility from a customer for not knowing the local language.

“Can we be a little kind?” wrote a Bengaluru resident on Reddit’s “Bangalore” community. In the post, the user recounted a recent incident.

Read| Bengaluru Motorists Stranded in Waterlogged Roads Surface as IT Capital Drowns in Heavy Rains

The incident took place after the Redditor bought pineapples from a north Indian vendor in the city’s ISRO Layout. A woman approached the vendor and asked for the price of the pineapples. The vendor responded, “40 ka ek [Rs 40 for one piece]” and “100 ka 3 [Rs 100 for three pieces].” The woman, unable to understand him, asked him to repeat himself multiple times. The Redditor then intervened and explained in Kannada what the vendor had said.

However, instead of expressing gratitude towards the Redditor or placing an order, the woman berated the vendor for not knowing Kannada. In response, the vendor apologised to her and explained that he had only been in the city for a week and will learn the language soon.

Take a look at the Redditor’s post here:

After the Reddit post gained traction, an individual expressed, “Everyone in Bangalore is becoming insensitive nowadays. What a poor vendor will do. They don’t have the means to learn a new language. At least the privileged North Indians can do. It looks like a typical high class high handed behaviour.”

“For all the ‘learn kannada’ voices that I have seen in the city, I have seen zero to none accessibility to do so. I visited several book stores, they didn’t have a book to learn Kannada from. English speaking course books were plenty though. I know I can access the internet and learn via an e-course, but what about a layman who doesn’t have internet access and doesn’t even know English properly? I haven’t even seen physical advertisements for speaking courses. The locals want the immigrants to randomly wake up one day and have the ability to speak fluently, as if they were born and raised here. When I ask my colleagues for sources to learn the language, they nonchalantly tell me that knowing English is enough. So tell me, where is the incentive, accessibility, and the opportunity to learn?” chimed in another.

A third wrote, “This. I’ve spent 9 years in Bangalore on and off and I couldn’t learn much Kannada at all except for Kannada Gothilla. Three months in Anekal and I can now understand it for the most part and can speak a broken version of it. Made me realise that everyone in Bangalore wants you to learn Kannada but don’t want to teach you any. On the other hand, if I’d been living in Chennai for this long, I’d be rapping Tamil like a localite.”