“The Travails of Single South Indian men of conservative upbringing” Or “Why we don’t get any…”
Yet another action packed weekend in Mumbai, full of fun, frolic and introspection. I have learnt many things. For example having money when none of your friends have any is as good as not having any. And after spending much time in movie theatres, cafes and restaurants I have gathered many insights into the endless monotony that is the love life of south Indian men. What I have unearthed is most disheartening.
Disheartening because comprehension of these truths will not change our status anytime soon. However there is also cause for joy. We never stood a chance anyway.
What loads the dice against virile, gallant, well educated, good looking, sincere mallus and tams? (Kandus were once among us, but Bangalore has changed all that.)
Our futures are shot to hell as soon as our parents bestow upon us names that are anything but alluring. I cannot imagine a more foolproof way of making sure the child remains single till classified advertisements or that maternal uncle in San Francisco thinks otherwise. Name him “Parthasarathy Venkatachalapthy” and his inherent capability to combat celibacy is obliterated before he could even talk. He will grow to be known as Partha. Before he knows, his smart, seductively named northy classmates start calling him Paratha. No woman in their right minds will go anyway near poor Parthasarathy.
His investment banking job doesn’t help either. His employer loves him though. He has no personal life you see. By this time the Sanjay Singhs and Bobby Khans from his class have small businesses of their own and spend 60% of their lives in discos and pubs. The remaining 40% is spent coochicooing with leather and denim clad muses in their penthouse flats on Nepean Sea Road. Business is safely in the hands of the Mallu manager.
After all with a name like Blossom Babykutty he cant use his 30000 salary anywhere. Blossom gave up on society when in school they automatically enrolled him for Cookery Classes. Along with all the girls.
Yes my dear reader, nomenclature is the first nail in a coffin of neglect and hormonal pandemonium. In a kinder world they would just name the poor southern male child and throw him off the balcony. “Yes appa we have named him Goundamani…” THUD. Life would have been less kinder to him anyway.
If all the women the Upadhyays, Kumars, Pintos and, god forbid, the Sens and Roys in the world have met were distributed amongst the Arunkumars, Vadukuts and Chandramogans we would all be merry casanovas with 3 to 4 pretty things at each arm. But alas it is not to be. Of course the south Indian women have no such issues. They have names which are like sweet poetry to the ravenous northie hormone tanks.
Picture this:
“Welcome, and this is my family. This is my daughter Poorni (what a sweet name!!) and my son Ponnalagusamy (er.. hello..)..” Cyanide would not be fast enough for poor Samy. Nothing Samy does will help him. He can pump iron, drive fast cars and wear snazzy clothes, but against a braindead dude called Arjun Singhania he has as much chance of getting any as a Benedictine Monk in a Saharan Seminary.
Couple this with the other failures that have plagued our existence.
Any attempt at spiking hair with gel fails miserably. In an hour IÂ have a crown of greasy, smelly fibrous mush. My night ends there.
However the northy just has to scream “Wakaw!!!” and you have to peel the women off him to let him breathe. In a disco while we can manage the medium hip shake with neck curls, once the Bhangra starts pumping we are as fluid as cement and gravel in a mixer.
Karan Kapoor or Jatin Thapar in the low cut jeans with chaddi strap showing and see through shirt throws his elbows perfectly, the cynosure of all attention. The women love a man who digs pasta and fondue.
But why do they not see the simple pleasures of curd rice and coconut chutney? When poor Senthilnathan opens his tiffin box in the office lunch room his female coworkers just dissappear when they see the tamarind rice and poppadums. The have all rematerialised around Bobby Singh who has ordered in Pizza and Garlic bread. (And they have the gall to talk of foreign origin.)
How can a man like me brought up in roomy lungis and oversized polyester shirts ever walk the walk in painted on jeans (that makes a big impression) and neon yellow rib hugging t shirts? All I can do is don my worn “comfort fit” jeans and floral shirt. Which is pretty low on the “Look at me lady” scale, just above fig leaf skirt and feather headgear a la caveman, and a mite below Khakhi Shirt over a red t shirt and baggy khakhi pants and white trainers a la Rajni in “Badsha”.
Sociologically too the tam or mallu man is severely sidelined. An average tam stud stays in a house with, on average, three grandparents, three sets of uncles and aunts, and over 10 children. Not the ideal atmosphere for some intimacy and some full throated “WHOSE YOUR DADDY!!!” at the 3 in the morning.
The mallu guy of course is almost always in the gulf working alone on some onshore oil rig in the desert. Rheumatic elbows me thinks.
Alas dear friends we are not just meant to set the nights on fire. We are just not built to be “The Ladies Man”. The black man has hip hop, the white man has rock, the southie guy only has idlis and tomato rasam or an NRI account in South Indian Bank Ernakulam Branch.
Alas as our destiny was determined in one fell swoop by our nomenclature, so will our future be. A nice arranged little love story. But the agony of course does not end there. On the first night, as the stud sits on his bed finally within touching distance and whispers his sweet desires into her delectable ear, she blushes, turns around and whispers back “But amma has said only on second saturdays…”
In one last effort here we attractive young men have taken on alter egos which may interest some of you women:
- Gautam Kumar Raja, will now be known as Joshua Perreira
- Sidin Sunny Vadukut, henceforth will be known as Dev Chopra
- Ashwath Venkataraman is now Vijay Desai
- Sudarshan Ramakrishnan no more, from now he is Barath Sharma
- Gautam Chandrasekharan will now respond to Alyque Shah
Do mail me any time for a meeting with one of the above. One week notice if Italian or Chinese food is involved, or if the individual is expected to dance.
December 4, 2006
Posted in: Funny Stuff, Humor, Humour, Jokes, Jokes and Humor

18 Responses
A Slice of…Indian Life « Past, Present and Me - December 9, 2006
[...] What’s in a name, you say? ‘For a Rose shall still be a rose …’ and all that. Well, if you are a ‘tam or a mallu’, heck of a lot in a name, according to this guy. Meet the Funny Indian and his take on the travails of Single South Indian Men of conservative upbringing. [...]
This post is written by Sidin. I don’t see a mention of that here.
Kusum,
I don’t know where this comes from. I got this in an email. I have mentioned on the about page that everything I post on this blog is from emails that I receive. I do not claim to have written any of the articles/jokes on this blog.
My personal blog is at http://politeindian.wordpress.com. This one is just a repository of the funny emails that I receive.
If I copy from any body’s blog I will give the due credit.
I tried looking for this on Sidin’s blog but couldn’t find the link to it. If you can find the link then please post it. He should get the credit for the wonderful piece like this.
Oh I am sorry, I did not check the about me page.
Cool.
FunnyIndian,
Yes..This is written by Sidin as said by Kusum and is one his best pieces ever. Will try and search on his blog for the article.
Cheers,
HP
HP,
Please post the link here when you find it.
Thanks.
http://sidin.blogspot.com/2004/05/travails-of-single-south-indian-men-of.html is the link.
Vivek,
thanks for the link
Well Tamilians do dance.And mallus.. er ..well they just drink at the pubs.And a great deal at that.
i would like to respond at length to this post. i came to it searching for similar voices on the internet. although i am not a tamil or mallu, i am brown skinned and i am indian by birth. i don’t get any either. that has not always been the case through every period of my adult life, but for most of it, i have been discouraged by trying to socialize through normal means. sometimes the internet can be helpful, sometimes a thorough waste of time and even harmful to your soul. the main problem for indian men in america is that women are not attracted to dark skinned men in general. and though there may be a possibility of dating black women, i find that there is no interest from them, and to tell the truth, i’m not fond of them either. i learned to accept it. i’m older now.
I have been living in Philippines for the last 20 years. Once i visited India along with my parents and the food culture there was really amazing and very diversified. Each and every state there has it’s own speciality in especially in food (language cloths, and tradition would be other terms). I enjoyed many recepies their, some of them i remember Chola bhatoora, shahi paneer, matar paner i like most. If in future i will get a chance to visit India, I would not like to miss it, exclusively for Indian Food
When an Indian signs his name with a “Ch.” prefix, what does that mean? Is it an abbreviated name, a title, or what? Just curious.
What can I say ……. U r an excellent writer !
But yeah, ideawise few things I will agree and few I will disagree…..
But anyways, it’s good !!!!!!!!!
Ha ha.. just travel abroad and a Bobby Singh is same as a Bobbykuttan … both strugggle to get any…
either way, where does name come in when you are pulling… just use a pseudonym… who cares… I will be Jamie or Abin or Mike…
Bobby singh is king in Northistan while Bobbykuttan is Emperor in Southapuram
if men want to pull, think what will make the girl pleased and say that( its not, you have great t*ts)… a bit cheeky is good once you have got the connection…
liked it… really funny…. Name issue is a pain for all indians…
While Bob is Robert, and Sam is Samuel… atleast similiar ,…. in India.. Appu is Shaym / PArvinder…
Sehr interessant. Kommt hier noch ein weiterer Beitrag? Möchte gern einiges mehr darüber wissen. Könntest du mir per Mail eine Antwort geben?
Intriguing, how would I use this?
I really love this article- long but worth reading written by a guy called “Ramesh neelamani” - an apt name for a story like this!! Padmanabhan becomes Paddy,madhavan becomes maddy,and vasudevan vadee…haha
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