The taste of being an Indian (Asian)
This was a couple of weeks back…I was with some of my friends in central London, having a couple of drinks on a boat restaurant /bar on the Thames. We were having a good time and guess left by around 1030 pm.
…being hungry we decided to head to Covent Garden, but as we reached there figured it was late and most restaurants were serving their last orders and not taking more orders, as they didn’t have a night license.
Then we saw an Indian restaurant run by a Sri Lankan guy, who greedily welcomed us. Not that I was too keen on having an Indian meal in London, but then in retrospect, realize that some things are meant to be.
We placed the order and waited… had the quintessential cobra beer (its funny that the label actually has “cobra” written in hindi on it, and it is quite a popular drink there). The food came, well it was Indian for sure, but was a weird concoction for the true Indian palette.
We asked the waiter to get us another round of Roti’s (bread), to which his manager came and replied to us that the kitchen was closed. Figuring that not much could be done now, we continued eating; however in two minutes, he somehow produced the Roti’s.
Two of us had finished eating, and were waiting for our third friend to finish. The waiter came and asked, if he could clear the plates and we told him to wait till everyone had finished. Exactly 30 seconds later he reappeared and took the plates and the remaining dishes away. Irritated with his behavior we let the third guy finish and asked for the cheque. (needless to say that the third plate also vanished from the table as soon as this friend of mine had finished eating).
When the manager came back with the change I looked at him scornfully and told him that next time if they were not in a position to take a full order and execute it completely, they should simply say so. The dude just looked at me and instead of apologizing and explaining that they didn’t have a license to serve beyond 1130 pm (which we would have probably understood) snapped back saying that “We have such problems only with our own people!”
For a moment I didn’t know how to react (felt disgusted more than insulted, cause nobody had ever treated me like that before in any other country that I have traveled to), but then I thought of his choice of words, not only had he insulted us (kudos for that well done, mission achieved), but pitifully dragged himself in the insult as well, by saying “our own people”.
So all I said to him was that If you can’t respect yourself, I don’t expect you to respect others and walked away. (This was followed by remarks from both parties, but that seemed inconsequential)
Left with a bad taste in the mouth, but more than that felt sorry for the so called “our own people” who till date consider themselves inferior to others… I mean this gives a new tangent to racism. If you inflict it upon yourself, can you really blame others ( I guess they simply join the party then)
…being hungry we decided to head to Covent Garden, but as we reached there figured it was late and most restaurants were serving their last orders and not taking more orders, as they didn’t have a night license.
Then we saw an Indian restaurant run by a Sri Lankan guy, who greedily welcomed us. Not that I was too keen on having an Indian meal in London, but then in retrospect, realize that some things are meant to be.
We placed the order and waited… had the quintessential cobra beer (its funny that the label actually has “cobra” written in hindi on it, and it is quite a popular drink there). The food came, well it was Indian for sure, but was a weird concoction for the true Indian palette.
We asked the waiter to get us another round of Roti’s (bread), to which his manager came and replied to us that the kitchen was closed. Figuring that not much could be done now, we continued eating; however in two minutes, he somehow produced the Roti’s.
Two of us had finished eating, and were waiting for our third friend to finish. The waiter came and asked, if he could clear the plates and we told him to wait till everyone had finished. Exactly 30 seconds later he reappeared and took the plates and the remaining dishes away. Irritated with his behavior we let the third guy finish and asked for the cheque. (needless to say that the third plate also vanished from the table as soon as this friend of mine had finished eating).
When the manager came back with the change I looked at him scornfully and told him that next time if they were not in a position to take a full order and execute it completely, they should simply say so. The dude just looked at me and instead of apologizing and explaining that they didn’t have a license to serve beyond 1130 pm (which we would have probably understood) snapped back saying that “We have such problems only with our own people!”
For a moment I didn’t know how to react (felt disgusted more than insulted, cause nobody had ever treated me like that before in any other country that I have traveled to), but then I thought of his choice of words, not only had he insulted us (kudos for that well done, mission achieved), but pitifully dragged himself in the insult as well, by saying “our own people”.
So all I said to him was that If you can’t respect yourself, I don’t expect you to respect others and walked away. (This was followed by remarks from both parties, but that seemed inconsequential)
Left with a bad taste in the mouth, but more than that felt sorry for the so called “our own people” who till date consider themselves inferior to others… I mean this gives a new tangent to racism. If you inflict it upon yourself, can you really blame others ( I guess they simply join the party then)
posted by the vestige at
8:57 AM
2 Comments:
I know! India is probably the country with the lowest self-esteem, where being 'us' is demeaning and being 'them' gets you brownie points! We have to learn patriotism from the French I think, who are the epitome of national pride, be it language, culture, people, food or heritage! Why we don't pick up the good things from the 'West', I really don't know!
Ya so true! IS there any other country that demeans itself the way we do? seriously is there?!! Major colonial hangover even two generations after!!
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