On 'Naatil evideya?'

 

When stranger Malayalis meet away from homeground, the quintessential opener is always, 'Naatil evideya?' It’s like our trademark follow-up to Namaskar(am). Recently, someone pointed out how unique this greeting is compared to the rest of India. While most Indians will try to extract a second name to decode lineage and the unspoken implications therein, Malayalis seemingly take a different approach. But, is this really a radical departure?

We’re all guilty of this behaviour. It may not always be as overt, but there’s a trend that spans across Indian social interactions; an unspoken curiosity about the origins of the person standing before you. Malayalis do it too, eventually, after the Naatil evideya ceremony is done with.

And anyway, Naatil evideya itself may not be so innocent, if you think about it. It’s cute, harmless even, but is it really? Of course, it doesn’t slip into the same line of inquisitiveness directly. In the end, we’re not really avoiding judgment based on caste or lineage, but we’re still categorizing them based on the place they, or their parents, come from.

The problem is, as much as we like to think of ourselves as exempt from the same petty assumptions we criticize, isn’t this subtle form of categorization what we are doing too? We’re still trying to build a mental image of a person, based on their place of origin, just like everyone else. The extra camaraderie we share when we find out we're from the same town doesn't that feel strangely similar to the social assumptions we claim to reject?

So, before we pat ourselves on the back for our supposed 'superior' cultural values, let's ask, how much different are we, really?

ps: I ask 'Naatil evideya?' all the time.