Rudeness – the essential ingredient without which Dilliwallas wouldn’t be Dilliwallas

I’ve been suffering from pangs of homesickness and the urge to break into tears quite a lot recently. Since my gender doesn’t allow for PMS and Menopause, it’s definitely not physiological.(And yes men cry too.) So what gives? I’ll tell you what, Rudeness, especially in that just below the surface, thinly veiled variety that Dilliwallas have raised to the level of an art form.

Take some sarcasm, add a very small pinch of wit, finely dice in a hint of contempt, stir some snobbery for flavor and garnish with the utmost amount of hauteur that you can manage and there you have the famous Dilliwalla brand of rudeness that is guaranteed to make any non Dilliwalla feel miserable.

It’s everywhere – at the gym, the restaurant, the office, the metro – any way you turn and come smack up against it. It’s enough to make anyone cynical for life. That horrible way that Dilliwallas have of putting you just a couple of pegs lower than they are and then talking down to you across an unbreachable chasm of neo social class hierarchy is truly unbearable.

For someone like me who was taught that everyone is worthy of respect, this kind of treatment makes one want to take a vow of silence so that I’d never have to put up with that unbearable rudeness again.

I’d always believed in the maxim that you should do unto others as would have them do unto you, and I’ve always tried to follow it even when I’ve known that I’m being short changed but this horrific rudeness is simply not done. It is enough to set me thinking that maybe its time that I changed my behavior patterns and started giving it back as good as I get.

The only problem in this entire scenario is that when I wanted to be rude to people I simply could not allow myself to do it. I did not allow myself that moment of perverse satisfaction because if behave in that utterly vile and loathsome way then I am no better than the Dilliwallas.

I had been told that people in Delhi are defined by their coolness. That’s not rue. Dilliwallas are defined solely by their innate rudeness and I’m truly glad that I’m not a Dilliwalla. I’m a small townie and I’m proud to be one. Amen!