Many times we ask this question when we meet new people: where are you from? Many times we are asked: where are we from? This is very casually asked as part of the introduction. Yet, the answer to this question is not so simple - it is a very context sensitive answer. We give different answers depening on the location where the question was asked; who is the person asking the question etc.
The answer to this question can be very wide - from a very big geographical region to a small locality of a town or a village (coarse grained vs finer grained as a Computer Science guy would say). At the highest level of granularity, I can think of a diplomat negotiating in North-South dialogue who can answer the question saying that he is from Northern Hemisphere or some other diplomat replying that he is from Southern hemisphere. At next lower level, one may mention the name of the continent, saying she is from Asia, or Europe etc. But these are rare occasions. For most practical purpose, the highest level of answer is the name of the country. When I am traveling outside of India and someone asks me the question, my simple answer is: I am from India. There is no confusion in higher level of answers. (When traveling outside of India, if some other Indian asks me the question, my answer will be different.)
There is usually a follow-up question: where do you live? It carries a straight answer. People usually reply it with the city or village where they currently live.
The lower you go in the level trying to answer the original question (where are you from?), the more is the complexity of the answer. Most of the people, whom I asked this question, do not consider the place where they work as their place. Many of them have been living in Bangalore for more than a decade and have their own homes here. Yet, all of them mention the place where they spent their childhood days as their own place. The sense of belonging (আপোনত্ব, अपनापन) to the place where they have been working for many years is missing. The emotion is all attached with the place where we all spent our childhood days. That is the place from where we are; not the current place of residence.
First example is my father. He came to Morigaon in 1972 when the Sub-Division was created. Morigaon later became a distict. Deuta (father in Assamese) spent most of his work life in Morigaon. He built his house there. He retired from his job in Morigaon. He has been living in Morigaon for almost 40 years. But ask him where is he from. He will tell you that he is from Hatisung in Nagaon district, the village where he was born and spent his childhood days! I was born in Morigaon and spent the first 15 years of my life there. I am out of Morigaon for last almost two decades. I live in Bangalore now and own an apartment here. I have spent six years in this city. Ask me where I am from. My answer is: I am from Assam. If someone from Assam is asking me this question, I'll tell him that I am from Morigaon. If I meet someone from Morigaon, then I'll tell him the name of my locality in Morigaon.
Ask my son Ekagra where is he from in a few years. I am sure he will reply he is from Bangalore.
The most interesting answer to this question came from one of my colleagues. His father works in the armed forces. The armed force personnels work in different places of the country and keep moving from one place to another within a few years. So my colleague spent his childhood days all across the country. His father's native place is in Orissa; but my colleague never lived in Orissa. He later pursued his engineering in southern state of Kerala. Now he works in Bangalore. He told me: he needs five minutes time in answering the question where he is from. But he said it will be easier to answer the question when he goes outside of India. He can simply say then: "I am from India".
Look at Facebook profile of any of your friends. It has two fields: Lives in for current place of residence and from for that sweet place where your spent your childhood days. Of course, there are some people for whom both the fields are same.
So where are you from? :-)
The answer to this question can be very wide - from a very big geographical region to a small locality of a town or a village (coarse grained vs finer grained as a Computer Science guy would say). At the highest level of granularity, I can think of a diplomat negotiating in North-South dialogue who can answer the question saying that he is from Northern Hemisphere or some other diplomat replying that he is from Southern hemisphere. At next lower level, one may mention the name of the continent, saying she is from Asia, or Europe etc. But these are rare occasions. For most practical purpose, the highest level of answer is the name of the country. When I am traveling outside of India and someone asks me the question, my simple answer is: I am from India. There is no confusion in higher level of answers. (When traveling outside of India, if some other Indian asks me the question, my answer will be different.)
There is usually a follow-up question: where do you live? It carries a straight answer. People usually reply it with the city or village where they currently live.
The lower you go in the level trying to answer the original question (where are you from?), the more is the complexity of the answer. Most of the people, whom I asked this question, do not consider the place where they work as their place. Many of them have been living in Bangalore for more than a decade and have their own homes here. Yet, all of them mention the place where they spent their childhood days as their own place. The sense of belonging (আপোনত্ব, अपनापन) to the place where they have been working for many years is missing. The emotion is all attached with the place where we all spent our childhood days. That is the place from where we are; not the current place of residence.
First example is my father. He came to Morigaon in 1972 when the Sub-Division was created. Morigaon later became a distict. Deuta (father in Assamese) spent most of his work life in Morigaon. He built his house there. He retired from his job in Morigaon. He has been living in Morigaon for almost 40 years. But ask him where is he from. He will tell you that he is from Hatisung in Nagaon district, the village where he was born and spent his childhood days! I was born in Morigaon and spent the first 15 years of my life there. I am out of Morigaon for last almost two decades. I live in Bangalore now and own an apartment here. I have spent six years in this city. Ask me where I am from. My answer is: I am from Assam. If someone from Assam is asking me this question, I'll tell him that I am from Morigaon. If I meet someone from Morigaon, then I'll tell him the name of my locality in Morigaon.
Ask my son Ekagra where is he from in a few years. I am sure he will reply he is from Bangalore.
The most interesting answer to this question came from one of my colleagues. His father works in the armed forces. The armed force personnels work in different places of the country and keep moving from one place to another within a few years. So my colleague spent his childhood days all across the country. His father's native place is in Orissa; but my colleague never lived in Orissa. He later pursued his engineering in southern state of Kerala. Now he works in Bangalore. He told me: he needs five minutes time in answering the question where he is from. But he said it will be easier to answer the question when he goes outside of India. He can simply say then: "I am from India".
Look at Facebook profile of any of your friends. It has two fields: Lives in for current place of residence and from for that sweet place where your spent your childhood days. Of course, there are some people for whom both the fields are same.
So where are you from? :-)
6 comments:
Oh yes !! This is more context sensitive for me, depending on whether someone wants to know where 'we' are from .. as myself and Ravi are from different states too.. so the answer also changes, when the context is the family .. I generally say Noida or Punjab depending on the person who asks the question.. and yes, my kids say Bengaluru :)
Very nicely captured Jyotirmoy. Its always Context based. Some of my friends are from different states, if i have stayed in that state for even a like a year or two, i would jump in and start talking in thier dialect and would even pretend for a while i am from that state. :D
@Yamini, your answer is more interesting considering the fact that you spent some of your childhood days in the Gulf. So my assumption that we usually attach the place where we spent our childhood as "our" place in not always true.
Good one. I am from Mars. You too :)
Good discussion. I am still from West Bengal even though I am out of West Bengal for last 14 years ... :-)
Saikia,
jahan bhi jao, apne desh ki shaan badaathe rehna :). We are from India
/Samba
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