Funny how people in corporate jobs can stay in Hyderabad for decades saying “Telugu rādu”, but expect someone from a remote southern place to automatically know Hindi.
Note: Subject to exceptions.
In corporate environments, some people even make satirical remarks when someone doesn’t know Hindi which is also Subject to exceptions.
When I was working in Delhi, my knowledge of Hindi made communication easy for me. However, when a colleague from a remote South Indian region (newly joined), I spoke to him in Tamil (I’m Telugu, but I know a bit of Tamil as well).
One colleague, who is otherwise very close to me, reacted quite aggressively and asked why I was speaking in Tamil. I immediately asked him why he was speaking in Hindi. He replied, “Hindi is our national language.”
I responded firmly, “Bhai, please correct your understanding—we do not have any national language.”. Immediately who are around me are started Googling