Character.

Many people are surprised when they first encounter me because of my usage of 'plurals'. Rather, I use it to those whom I really dont know or dont perceive as 'close'. There is a good possibility that they think that I am 'over-acting' or 'exaggerating' or even 'mocking' them. I never knew how/why I always 'pay respect' to unknown people. Respect is usually not associated with me, especially to those who know me reasonably atleast ;) I surely remember my mother or her siblings do the same especially when they came to India from Sri Lanka during that chaos in 1980s and maybe I 'internalized' it. So I used to think that it was a Sri Lankan habit/culture/ethos. I happen to read 'The villu to keep it going' and some part of it seemed to make sense to me.

Madras' Tamil has got many people's goat. I think it is because of the confluence of people from across the country. Once, my Tamil teacher, scholar Navaneetha Krishnan Pillai came here to correct board exam papers. He got into a bus and the conductor addressed him in the singular. He got out, considering it an insult, little knowing that this was how people spoke here. He got in and out of many buses that day!

It looks that it is more a habit of Tirunelveli, where my mother's 'original origins' lie, though I wont be surprised if Sri Lankan Tamils too speak so. I remember my sister telling about the difference between Delhi and Lucknow. In Delhi, everybody is 'tu' (singular as mentioned above), whereas in Lucknow it is 'aap' (plural). My classmate in my graduate college who later served in the army used to say that is because Delhi buses are full of/owned by Jats with their unintentional condescending tone of voice and (un)fortunately this has become the 'voice of Delhi'. Thinking further now, I think that 'my usage' is also intuitive and fair. How can I address a stranger without respect? Sure I use singular against my parents, siblings or my friends, but they are people whom I have got to know/understand reasonably over a period of time. Speaking so with strangers in the city looks ridiculous to me. May be city life takes out the respect. Sure, a city has lot more characters than a village. I remember my colleague in AMD who sort of 'surprised' me when he said that his favourite quote was the dialogue in Pulp Fiction.

Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.