After the 1947 partition, thousands of Sindhis sailed from Pakistan to India. Leaving behind their wealth, land and all earnings, they started from scratch to re-build their lives.
Not many of them speak about what they had left in the land that was once theirs, but instead focused on how to re-establish themselves. Despite being recognised as one of the official languages in India, a lot of facts about the culture and tradition still remain to be unveiled.
Sindhi community, of which little is known, is trapped in the stereotypical portrayal as loud, blingy and money-minded people, courtesy Bollywood films. However, when it comes to reality, majority of them are totally opposite of what they have been shown to be since time immemorial.
Here, we bring a list of 12 stereotypes about Sindhis that we need to break free from ASAP.
Not every Sindhi is from Sindh
Sure, Sindhis do have their origin from Sindh but with the advent of time and situations, the Sindhi people have spread across the entire world. India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, UK are some of the countries that have a substantial population of Sindhis.
Every surname that ends with ‘ani’ is not Sindhi
If this had been the case, then Joey Tribbiani from the sitcom ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ would have been a Sindhi. Ambanis, Sadhwanis, Mankanis, xxx-anis may or may not be Sindhis.
Oh, and we do have surnames that don’t rhyme with Rani or other homophones
To your surprise, our list of surnames also include names like Kukreja, Bhatia, Chawla, Pahuja, Nagpal etc.
‘Duma Dum Mast Kalandar’ is not the only song we dance to
That maybe the party anthem for most of our get togethers, but hey, we do have a l-o-o-o-n-g list of songs when it comes to enjoying at dance parties. Apart from the conventional ‘Laal Jhule Laal’ track, we have a bucket full of peppy folk songs collectively known as Sindhi Laadas.
Kanjoos is not synonymous to Sindhi
“Kitna kanjoos hai yaar tu, Sindhi mat ban”, very often we use this line to mimick Sindhis. Gone are those days when Sindhis were struggling to save even a single penny to re-establish themselves in a foreign land, now they are much ‘dildaar’.
Business is not the only thing Sindhis are good at!
Sindhi = Businessman. Sindhis are beyond the profession of Business and its time everybody else should do too. Imagine if Vishal Dadlani owned a grocery shop or the veteran actress Sadhna Shivdasani owned a business firm or Ram Jethmalani ran a business of dry fruits, it doesn’t even fit in the frame of our mind, leave aside the possibility of it being true.
Aren’t you tired of asking every Sindhi to get Sindhi Kadi?
It’s time to dig a little deeper. Sindhi kadi is not the only delicious delicacy we offer. Next time you meet a Sindhi, ask him/her to get you a plate of Aloo Tuk or Sai-bhaji or Koki or Seviyan or Mitho lolo. Oh, not to forget even our rotis, called ‘Phulkas’ are different from the regular ones.
And no, we don’t eat papad before sleeping
Yes, majority of the Sindhis love papad. But generalising it and saying that “Oh, you’re not a Sindhi if you don’t eat Papad” is totally brutal. Papad is not really our identity proof.
“Addeee Saaaiiiii” is way too over-rated
Thanks to Bollywood, the first thing we say when we meet a Sindhi is, “Addee Saaiiiii”, don’t miss the automatic replacement of ‘r’ with ‘d’ while using this phrase. Well, not all Sindhis talk the way actor Vivek Vaswani portrays them to. Most of us have our pronunciations still intact, you know.
Blingy and Sindhi do not go hand-in-hand
Just because some ladies love to dress in a shimmery-shiny way, it does not entitle the entire community to be referred to as blingy. Yes, we do have a bling in our aura but definitely not in our dressing style.
Sindhis aren’t born rich, they earn money
The popular notion of Sindhis being ‘moti-party’ is not because they are blessed with tons and trucks of money but because they have earned it with utmost dedication and hard work.
Sindhis and Punjabis are not ‘ek hi baat’
Just like Tamil and Telugus are not the same, Sindhis and Punjabis are way too different from each other. The common string that they pertain is that both are descendents of Indo Aryan culture and form a part of North Indian ethnic groups.
We don’t have a quota unlike other minorities, we are sometimes missed out in the Thank-you posts such as that of Amazon, we are sometimes referred to as ‘foreign’ people in our own country but we still manage to stand out amidst the crowd. Hail Sindhis!
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