[Big A]

Mahadevan,

i) Wheat is the staple food in north like that of europe while rice is the staple food in south Its obvious. Ask any farmer to grow rice in kashmir and wheat in kerala he'll think u r an alien from mars. Climate, soil type, water availability, wind direction & the rains they bring....there r many reasons.

ii)the concept of cheese is non existant in south even today, in the north cheese (panneer or its derivatives) is a part of the regular diet just like the europeans The whites christened paneer as "cottage cheese" (dunno why?? coz its a milk derivative?) Am wondering then perhaps Khoya / Khova shd also be called one form of cheese (what's khoya called in english anyone?). Milk derivatives are more common in the north coz fewer types of vegetables grow there due to harsh winters.

iii)Baking is totally absent in the southern cuisine, it is the most widely used in the northeren cuisine (Naan, Roti) like the bread of the europeans. Chilly gusty winds put out fires in winters. In villages you can still see women digging a pit and putting fire into it to prevent it from going out for cooking / baking. Such hearths ensured food in winter. Necessity is the mother of invention. It isn't necessary to find a diff way of cooking in the south.

iv) Northern musical instruments are strikingly different from their Southern counterparts. For instance the southern percussion instrument miruthangam has the leather on the sides while the northern table has the leather on the top more like the western drums. Waaa Look at it this way: both use leather - hw does it matter if its on the side or on top?

v. Northen languages are spoken more from inside the mouth and less tongue twisting, more like the european languages, whereas the southern languages emphasize more on the tongue twisting. Language development depends mainly on neuro-cognitive function. Tongue twisting may not be necessary to get the message across. Syllables and accent in Hindi (& allied grps like Punjabi, Gujrati, Bengali, Bhojpuri, etc) is rather diff from common european languages like english or spanish. I don't exactly understand "inside of the mouth" -- maybe there are more number of sounds in northern derivatives due to presence of syllables generally absent in Tamil, so when these syllables are spoken without the tongue touching the teeth they sound like they come from within (like stress syllables Kha, Gha, Fa, Ksha, Bha, high sounding Na that sounds like aNa with the tongue folding backwards, etc, which are not there in Tamil). Passing note: I sometimes feel most northerners perhaps devote less time to language development and channelize their energies else-where.

vi)Another noticible difference is the speed with which the language is spoken, north Indian language speakers talk relatively very slowly like the europeans, while the southerners talk very fast more like the africans. Just listen to a northerener and southerner talking in English. Do ppl bcome diff if they speak fast or slow?

vii)Among the non veg people, fish is very common in southern diet while it is very much not a part of northern plate, with the exception of Bengalis. N.India is either plains or mountaineous not costal. Coast is only in Gujrat and bengal. So ppl eat fish there (though not much in Gujrat due to strong advocacy of vegetarianism). Perhaps you shd travel those places b4 coming to conclusions. Note: A Bengali friend felt insulted being called "North Indian" (the Bengali spirit is too strong to be clubbed with any other identity) and a good Gujrati friend felt funny being 'classified' as one. These ppl apparently like to be called West Indiands and East Indians. Sigh! .

hey the list can on and on What else? If you lived in the north or if a present-day northener lived in the south, for both of you, your ways wud change. You wud end up eating high-calorie baked food to withstand the cold. Am told marwadis in the south eat more rice and vegetables than their northern counterparts to prevent constipation due to moisture loss in humid climes.