"Are you from Delhi?

I encounter this question all the time from individuals in this village town (pretending to be a city) called Bangalore. Initially I would respond proudly and say yes. Is it not amazing that you can tell that I am from the capital of the country - the city everyone loves to hate? Slowly, much Delhi bashing later I realised it may not be such a good thing to be recognised without provocation as a Delhi-ite. Very often described as brash, rude and loud, us Delhiites are really a fun lot you know.

This post was instigated by my most recent asker of if I am from Delhi - and this one was from a phone conversation about my laptop!! I mean.. do people just guess generally that if you dont have a south Indian accent you MUST be from Delhi? Do Bombay people encounter this too? I dont think so.. Bombay people cannot really be defined I think. I dont hear people saying - oh yeah! you look like you are from bombay... or "something about you tells me you are from bombay". Usually, such comments are meant to insult since Bangaloreans pride themselves at being gentle creatures with benign characteristics like ummm.. err.. yeah the south indian accent.

Is it not puzzling that what you may think is your individual personality is, in fact, the personality of a whole city? That everyone from that city behaves in such a similar fashion that people look at you and see a flash like its written on your head - Delhi-ite. When I speak hindi they say to me "ah.. its just the way you speak hindi.. so delhi like". When I speak English they say to me "ah.. its just the way you speak English.. your accent is so Delhi". And then there was the guy who guess I was from Delhi because I had nice hair, was carrying a smart leather bag and smelled nice (didnt say much for the women of his own city though I thought) like that was a BAD thing. I almost felt bad for a moment until I realised he was saying nice things in his own twisted yet gentle (NOT) Bangalorean way..