Accused everywhere!!

I call myself @accusedengineer on Twitter! One of my close friends, calls himself @accused_iyer! Oh yeah, after the infinite amounts of plagiarism, I shall absolve myself by citing him as the source of inspiration for my Twitter handle! Inspiration nevertheless, I was intrigued by some of the memes doing rounds, “What, my parents think I am?”, “What my freinds think I am?”, What my girlfriend thinks I am!!

When will people ever know what I am?! Not that, I care. But sometimes, It hurts when people have a notion of me which is better than my real self. And obviously, I wont live to please their idea of me. And the vicious circle of people getting hurt starts!

But seriously, my introduction itself builds a wrong image in people’ s heads! Hi, Am Rahul. I am from Bangalore! All is fine till then.Then the dreaded question: Whats your native? Am a Tamilian! Therein, forms the image of a Sun TV watching, sambar loving, Hindi bashing image of mine! But heavens, I am anything but this. Yeah, I do have many Tamilian streaks. I love filter coffee. I love curd rice.I do love Vadivel, Vivek, Santhanam and yeah, am a Vijay fan too. But more than, am proud of the fact that I share my blood with the genius of Ramanunjam, the Anands and the ARRs.

Err, did I tell am full bred Bangalorean? Not really, there too! Somehow, people from all places except Bangalore have mapped the image of  a Bangalorean to a gum chewing, Manchester United jersey wearing, blond streaked dude with some hot gals for company. Oh yeah, did I forget people assume us to possess some costly gizmo and with near zero disdain for money! Sorry once more! I am a Bangalorean. Yes, My English oozes Bangalore. However, thy respect for Victorian English shall persist, love the da’s, the le’s , the chumma’s and the ganchalis!As a Bangalorean, love the Darshini hotels more than the fancy malls. But being middle class, am willing to walk the extra mile(yes, i mean it literally from college to home!) to catch an ordinary bus than travelling by the volvo!

In India, another prejudice is caste. In some ways, its not totally away from reality. And as my friend’s dad rightly calls him, accused iyers we have become! Mom calls at 8,”Dai, today Saraswati Puja da! Thala ke ellam kulli da! “. All we hear is Saraswathi and Puja! Pun intended!

But seriously, being Iyer does not mean no-world knowledge knowing, ghee eating, Veda reciting no-girl seeing nerd. Neither are we any good in maths. Again, am a fuzzy iyer. Once in a while, I do my sandhya Vandhanam. Once in a while, I watch Shakeela doing her jalwa!

And last but not the least? Engineering? Am ghanta engineer! The other day, my aunt was trying to get her vehicle to start, when my gracious grandfather interrupts! “Fret not, my dear daughter, I have a grandson, equal to a thousand lions, who has mastered the Vedas, err, sorry engineering. Thee shall transform your vehicle into a 1000 horsed chariot, now”! Aye, dude. I am no mechanic! Not that this has happened, but I can very well see my cousin in a year’s time asking me to solve the Towers of Hannoi problem given a C compiler! Wonder, if he really knows what I did during my engineering.

Not that I really fret over what people think about me. Perhaps, everbody lives in a parallel world. Perhaps, being accused is better than being convicted.