Can we be more indian?

So last weekend we went to an Indian restaurant in the very-merry-indian street Devon Ave, Chicago along with another couple. It wasn’t very busy inside but the tables were put so close to each other than you are literally a hand’s length from the next table (if you are really hungry it would be hard to resist the samosa sitting right next to you in the other table). Sitting side-by-side, back-to-back will make you feel you are riding Mumbai commuter trains. So anyway, we enter and are seated in this very cramped table. People on both sides and so close they are already uncomfortable we are going to sit there. So we ask to be seated in the totally open section where nobody is sitting. The guy says the section is closed. Oh well, that is fine, we will just sit with our back against some stranger who is the middle of what looked like a delicious meal. So we sit and in couple minutes a white couple gets up from the seat next to us and asks if they can be seated in the open section. And what do you know – the section just became available. For obvious reasons my friend and I looked at each other and he goes “you still want to eat here?” Well, I was thinking about it. But we stayed and finish our meal which was served with breaks and intermissions. Such awful service. Anywayz…

The reason I didn’t want to leave the restaurant was that I was not surprised by the double standards we Indians show in everything. I am sure every Indian has noticed how service is different to a non-indian (has to be non-Indian looking too) in an Indian restaurant. I have seen so many restaurants do that. I have worked in an Indian restaurant and have witnessed first hand how waiters don’t care if an Indian doesn’t get good service. What I was told when I started was “take it easy with the desis, they don’t tip well anyway”. Which is true, we don’t. You can treat them like the queen of England but when it comes to tipping, Indians will round it off to the nearest multiple of 5.

Anywayz…

This double standard is not limited to Indian restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations. Ever flown Air India? Well? Yeah, it doesn’t get worse than that. Absolutely bad service. I have flown Air India on 3 occasions mostly because it is cheaper than Emirates which is the only other option to get to my city without checking out baggage in Mumbai or Chennai. So anyway, people ask me why I fly Air India. Well, I do because it is cheaper than emirates and it is like spending an extra day in India. I have seen lot of bad service in Air India but in the last trip something just ticked me off. My wife and I were sitting two rows from the door. People are still getting into the plane so the hostess is at the door “welcoming” everyone with the traditional Namaste. Ah, how nice! We feel so close to home already! Yeah right! The thing is she was giving a full fledged Namaste to any non-indian (again, has to be non-indian looking too) and to Indians it was more like a “get-ur-brown-ass-in” welcome. Why do we do that? I have seen eastern Europeans flock together and take great pride in it. Italians of course would have dinner with entire Italy if given a chance. Chinese and Japanese look very comfortable with each other but I don’t know for sure. It can’t be worse than Indians. We don’t smile at each other in malls, grocery stores, trains, buses, streets. Oh and if you do find an Indian stranger all smiling and happy to meet you, odds are he/she is with quickstar, amway or whatever marketing-pyramid-cult that is going on now. Because of our attitude, somebody who genuinely wants to be with nice with other Indians will be misunderstood as a cult member, uh er I mean, marketing executive.

We boast of great advances in everything. When we going to learn to be more courteous to another Indian?

Oh and I smiled to another Indian guy in the train earlier today. He looked the other way. Maybe he thought I was trying to get him into quickstar. C'est la vie!