Unless you visit places and get direct experiennce, you will only believe in what you hear more often.  There is another point. We assume things on basis of what is more prevalent. For example, color of South Indians. Most of them are black and so we say they are black even if there are some exceptions. Again, India is known more by Hindi speaking belt and so what happens in U.P., M.P, Bihar and similar places is believed about whole country even though things may be different in North East, Ladakh and Andeman Nicobar,   

I can add 17 more to the list but we have done nothing much in last 7 decades. I think now Modi is doing good to change the image of India.

Gulshan Kumar Ajmani wrote:

Unless you visit places and get direct experiennce, you will only believe in what you hear more often.  There is another point. We assume things on basis of what is more prevalent. For example, color of South Indians. Most of them are black and so we say they are black even if there are some exceptions. Again, India is known more by Hindi speaking belt and so what happens in U.P., M.P, Bihar and similar places is believed about whole country even though things may be different in North East, Ladakh and Andeman Nicobar,   

 

Personally viewing the places without depending on Hearsay is the best way to erase such misconceptions.Your examples cleared many doubts.

Gulshan Kumar Ajmani wrote:

Unless you visit places and get direct experiennce, you will only believe in what you hear more often.  There is another point. We assume things on basis of what is more prevalent. For example, color of South Indians. Most of them are black and so we say they are black even if there are some exceptions. Again, India is known more by Hindi speaking belt and so what happens in U.P., M.P, Bihar and similar places is believed about whole country even though things may be different in North East, Ladakh and Andeman Nicobar,

 

I have seen people in many parts of South India having very fair skin color esp in TN, Kerala and Karnataka. Some regions in every SI states are extra ordinarily fair.   

suni51 wrote:

Gulshan Kumar Ajmani wrote:

Unless you visit places and get direct experiennce, you will only believe in what you hear more often.  There is another point. We assume things on basis of what is more prevalent. For example, color of South Indians. Most of them are black and so we say they are black even if there are some exceptions. Again, India is known more by Hindi speaking belt and so what happens in U.P., M.P, Bihar and similar places is believed about whole country even though things may be different in North East, Ladakh and Andeman Nicobar,

 

I have seen people in many parts of South India having very fair skin color esp in TN, Kerala and Karnataka. Some regions in every SI states are extra ordinarily fair.   

 

Very true. Generalizations of this kind is due to lack of awareness on the part of the tourists. Why go so far, many Indians think all those people beyond Vindhya are Madrasis even today. They do not know that there are 4 different states with their own different cultures and languages.

 

For that matter some people in some Indian states do not know the difference in between people from UP, Bihar, Punjab, MP and Rajasthan. For them everyone is a North Indian. But that depends on knowledge and education of a particular person.  

suni51 wrote:

For that matter some people in some Indian states do not know the difference in between people from UP, Bihar, Punjab, MP and Rajasthan. For them everyone is a North Indian. But that depends on knowledge and education of a particular person.  

 

Exactly. Both kinds are there. A person who travels widely knows the difference between Urdu and Hindi

Yesterday I went to a South Indian run shop to buy some lovely dry snacks they make. The man at the counter was speaking English in a typical Southern accent. Just as North Indians are Punjabis all South Indians are Tamils. So I thought I'll pay a compliment to the Keralite and praise his snacks by saying  they are lovely Kerala snacks. Suddenly his facial appearance changed and he said I am  Tamilian and these are Tamil snacks - nothing to do with Kerala. And I am a reasonably well travelled person within India due to my marketing job.

vijay wrote:

Yesterday I went to a South Indian run shop to buy some lovely dry snacks they make. The man at the counter was speaking English in a typical Southern accent. Just as North Indians are Punjabis all South Indians are Tamils. So I thought I'll pay a compliment to the Keralite and praise his snacks by saying  they are lovely Kerala snacks. Suddenly his facial appearance changed and he said I am  Tamilian and these are Tamil snacks - nothing to do with Kerala. And I am a reasonably well travelled person within India due to my marketing job.

 

I have heard lots of funny comments during my traveling days in almost every state of India. We know a lot about America and Britain but almost nothing about our own country. By the way I am also an ex-marketing professional and completed my training in Bangalore. Later I visited every corner of India and some other countries. However, I found most people from Kanya Kumari to Kashmir and from Puri to Somnath really so ill informed about our own country. People in North eastern states  know almost nothing across Brahmaputra River.

So, from all the discussions it is revealed the fact, unless you visit a place don't act on hearsay and form an opinion.