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Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Puddlefrog starts blogging

Please join me in welcoming Puddlefrog to the Blogosphere. Puddlefrog is new to Chennai and he tries to share some of his experiences through his blog. His latest post on rental advertisements is quite hilarious. I have reproduced the same below. Puddlefrog somehow managed to find a suitable house and hence please refrain from helping him out in this regard :-)
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Vegetarian houses

Spotted this down at my office building cafeteria:

House for rent available (Vegetarian)
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2 bedroom, 2 balcony, spacious, airy house available for rent - adyar area. Only vegetarian small families may apply (!!). Girls sharing (upto 6) permitted. No bachelors allowed. Only decent people may apply. Please contact (7-9 pm) at ....
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Now, me being an indecent looking North Indian of the wrong sex, and a bachelor at that, obviously didn’t even think towards 'applying' for this house. But I was certainly surprised at the house's diet preferences. This is not an isolated example, btw. Anyone who's searched for a place to rent in Chennai would swear what a nerve-wracking experience it can be. Thankfully, with the IT boom in the city - many a landlords' apprehensions seem to be going down. But like the post above tells, they're far from completely gone. The Chennai property classifieds of major newspapers could compete with the paper's matrimonial section just for the entertainment value.
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posted by Kaps at 11:40 AM

17 Comments:

  • unga blog la advertise pannarathukku evalo charge?

    Just kidding......

    the martimony section in the Hindu gives me great entertainment..i read it every sunday without fail....all for a good laugh and sometimes think about the pathetic state of the society..

    i live in an apartment, and opposite flat had some bachelors...all the other families in the flats were too apprehensive..and poor guys, as they dont want to lose the one house they have managed to find..they hardly put out so much as a toe nail out of their home....

    By Blogger monu, at 12:35 PM  

  • Sambhar,
    enakkum konjam AIR time sorrry PAGE TIME kudunga..

    naanum comedyaa yedhunaavadhu ezhudhanumnu nenaikkaren.. onnum seriyaa vara mattengudhu.. enna pannalaaamnu sollunga

    By Blogger ioiio, at 1:03 PM  

  • Here's another issue (as you said, I only raise issues, not commend ur blog :P

    Why do your blog-mates publish comments in a language that only a few can understand (Tam)?
    a) They are culturally insensitive?
    b) They dont want everyone to read their comments - why?

    Anyway, hope this raises the consciousness of these fellas that this is a public medium and so they ought to be culturally sensitive. (Whether it motivates them to write comments in english is another thing :D

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:31 PM  

  • @Monu,
    I don't charge for advertising in my blog. However if you still wish you to pay me you can click the Google Adsense on the right side

    @IOIIO,
    I'm scared of the Bull in your profile picture. Hence no Space Selling to u.

    @Tan,
    Point noted. I welcome criticism and it helps me in improving my blog.
    I have very little control over what other's comment and hence I can't force them to comment only in English.
    If the comments are in English it is easier for everyone to understand it.
    If one person starts commenting in Tam there is a tendency for others to follow the same.
    I think this is partly attributable to the kind of audience my blog attracts. Let me try and work on this (I don't promise any results :-)

    By Blogger Kaps, at 1:43 PM  

  • @tan
    point taken..
    one of my friends' blog had comments in a language called malayalam... and i couldn't follow a thing....
    i think its time i stopped commenting in tamil...
    :)

    By Blogger monu, at 1:59 PM  

  • :) Funny!
    Even I tend to publish comments in Tamil..guess its a very bad habit!!Somethings have the funny touch only when said in Tamil..anyways gotto stop that habit..

    By Blogger Prabha, at 2:06 PM  

  • Err...You don't sound like a North Indian...and I see most of the comments are made in tamil..which means that either you are south Indian..or you enjoy comments in a foreign tongue, C'est vrai? hmm..c'ext tres bizarre. Qu'est-ce qui se passe?!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 2:13 PM  

  • well that is good old madras for u..but despite these idiocincracies it is still the greatest city in india!

    madras is the best!

    By Blogger Siddharth, at 3:26 PM  

  • Disclaimer : I dint take this personally.. So no follow up mails asking me to take the Chill pill.

    They are culturally insensitive?
    Not neccessarily. I comment in English when i want to and I comment in Tamil When I dont want to. Its a matter of personal choice.. I dont understand why people bother abt one passenger talking to another passenger in a language that some other passenger in the bus stop cant understand! This is a bus stop not a board of directors meeting..

    U can call that arrogance, ignorance and whatever any1 wants. But the point is that was a comment written on Kaps blog post for HIM to notice..And When I want u to understand what I am saying, I write in English. If this is what ppl call as insensitive.. then so be it.

    b) They dont want everyone to read their comments - why?

    Its either because he doesnt want u to understand, or because he doesnt want to lose originality of thought thru translation or maybe because he doesnt know that language or maybe because he isnt comfortable with it.There cud be thousands of reason.

    Tommorow, if someone comes up with a similar comment abt evry1 writing in English when almost evry1 who visits this blog is more comfortable in Hindi/Tamil, what wud we do? Wud we Write the same comment in 3 diff languages.

    In short there is something called Intended Audience for each word we utter and unfortunately u were not, this time..

    Better luck next time

    By Blogger ioiio, at 3:48 PM  

  • Tan,

    Living away from home people (I for starters) tend to view blogs as a place to hang out with people of similar background. To be honest with you until i started frequenting the blogs about 18 months ago, my knowledge of Tanglish was negligble, I am now an expert on it (Not sure if that is anything to be proud of hehehe)

    I try my best to write the post in English, but as Sambhar said if one person strts off with Tanglish comments then the others tend to follow. It is not due to insensitivity, but just feels like a comedy club where when translated the joke is lost :) But I also feel that if people saw more non-tamilians commenting on that particular blog they tend to stick to English.

    Uma

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:04 PM  

  • Kaps, thanks for the comment over at mine :-)

    By Blogger Krish, at 12:16 AM  

  • Recently, Wall Street Journal (which I respect for their rigor in journalistic pursuits) carried an article about Jain communities in Mumbai where a similar "Renting for vegetarians only" is in practice. The article had some interesting thoughts that I want to share with you. I am not a Jain, but when I find something universally trueful, I like it....so here you go...

    The #1 reason why people in Mumbai dont want to rent their houses to non-vegetarians is not because they are vegetarians, its because of a lack of proper waste disposal system. -- in this case, bones/hide/tissue etc....

    needless to say, the article later on focused on how companies can profit from waste management in india....

    Unlike the western countries where meat when sold is packed and when disposed by the customer is in a garbage container, there is some truth in what the article said...(I am not saying all non-vegetarians dispose meat/meat products haphazardly)...

    so, maybe, that could be applicable to your situation....now that "upto 6 girls sharing allowed"...that beats me....

    By Blogger Ganesh Venkittu, at 3:44 AM  

  • I've seen many such adverts in Chennai...and some go to the extent of saying that people belonging to a particular community are only allowed!!!

    By Blogger PVS, at 8:36 AM  

  • If anyone of you misses the madras Hindu matrimonials (the newspaper not the religion). Try and check out shaadi.com under the tamil or any other south indian section.

    It is unbelieveable that in the internet posts like this one exist:

    "Educated, homely 26 year old Iyer girl seeks Engineer/Doctor groom. Preferably working in the US. Girl is well coloured and can cook and do other household duties very well."

    By Blogger nmk, at 9:16 AM  

  • Humm I came to comment something and have now diverted elsewhere.

    Tan presuming you're chinese singaporean, well its about familiarity and a love for the language. No one speaks the queens english among friends, theres Tanglish, Manglish, Sanglish - plus its natural to switch between languages especially when the joke is better in another tongue.

    Come on when a bunch of Chinese and say one non chinese are together - don't you ever speak just in chinese? I'm Malaysian, been in such a situation too many times.

    It doesn't make anyone ignorant, nor culturally insensitive, its just a natural transition.

    By Blogger Visithra, at 3:29 PM  

  • Visithra,

    Thanks for the comment. One small clarification. Tan is also an Indian. Tan is just a nickname. Apart from the words machan and thambi he knows some swear words in Tam.

    By Blogger Kaps, at 4:02 PM  

  • Kaps : oh ok - assumption didn't work here just change the characters ;p

    By Blogger Visithra, at 4:16 PM  

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