This is the text of the letter I wrote to the magazine's editor:
I have not in recent memory come across an article in an Indian magazine that has made my blood boil as much. I am practically shaking as I type this. I have no idea what sort of people Gopinath comes across to warrant his jaundiced view of Indians or how he forms an opinion about a 1.2 billion people through his stained glasses, or even how a magazine that I have grown to like can carry a piece laced with such harebrained hatred.
I have just finished my MBA at IIM Lucknow and have moved to what Gopinath would undoubtedly refer to as an uncouth, unplanned, unhygienic, uncivil city, viz Bombay. I have been here a week and I have my own observations to share. Indians, the same people Gopinath viciously excoriates ("Between a snake and Indian, kill Indian first..." Seriously? If someone had said that to me I would have smacked him in the face, not gloated about it in a magazine), in this beautiful city are courteous, helpful, polite, deeply caring. Yes, they get into "Churchgate mode" because of the sheer size of our population but they also vacate seats in local trains for those more in need and literally fall over one another to answer your query about which side Bandra station would arrive.
I love the city and I love Delhi (where I worked) and Lucknow (where I studied) and Gwalior (where I grew up). Someone remind Gopinath that one need not praise others at the cost of one's own, especially when such criticism is gratuitous and plain wicked. And a humble request to Open to exercise greater editorial control over such deplorable material.
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