Dining Abroad ...

One more outing with a set of white skins to an Indian restaurant and out of all the other Indian restaurants I have been to in the US, this one is very different, in the sense, this restaurant does not have any employees of the Indian origin and all our Indian dishes are made by a foreigner. Could you ever imagine eating a "potato bonda" done by a foreigner ?? I am sure he would have come to India to acquire the knowledge on that. This place was very different that I did not feel like eating, I somehow don’t feel comfortable in a white skinned girl serving me rasam saadham, I know this is a mindset and of course that is what it is. I have been counting within myself of how many times I would have gone out for lunch and dinner with these US folks and how many times I would have explained the taste of Indian food and how they are made and things like that, this time for a change I did not open my mouth and G was the one who was explaining how the stuffs are prepared to the other folks.

The restaurant was quite when we entered and moment we 8 folks (3 Indians and rest US) occupied our seats they started to play songs from Bunty Or Bubly "Kajraare ... Kajraare ..." and I am wondering why not a "Ilayaraaja" song ? Like "Sorgame Endraalum adhu Namboora Pola varummaa", anyways I am not a big fan of Hindi songs so I did not bother to listen and surprisingly one of the outsider listened to that music and he said, "This song is wonderful", I am a kind of stunned, so music is something beyond words. We were all going through the menu card and I safely chose to take the buffet as I am not that comfortable in deciding things for my order and I always feel that it is waste of time, because there will always be a better thing than what you have ordered and the same concept applies for our lives as well, there is always a superior quality of life than what we live. We a kind of convinced everyone to take buffet, but one guy said he wanted to order and he was asking me what is the meaning of "Raitha" and I told him what it was and I could see light bulbs flashing out of his eye as he has never eaten a vegetable soaked in yoghurt.

It was altogether a very different feeling for me to see a white-skilled person serving you rasam and bonda's and chapathi's, I am seriously not a racist here, I am just speaking out my mind aloud, maybe it is my stupid mind set. I have spent a decent amount of duration in this country and I have been to numerous Indian restaurants but I have seen people of race and ethnicity serving me the food, and they do talk in my language and then ask me how the taste was, but here the feeling was different. The biggest thing is explaining a person who in his first time eating an Indian food, so he was asking in every item if there is any chance of eating a non-vegetarian stuff, he was so funny when he asked me if he can get a non-vegetarian rasam, and I said "oh you certainly can, but you have to come to India and eat my office cafeteria food where they float roaches inside the rasam". My good friend G started comparing and contrasting our Indian food and their food and the explanation he gave for chapathi's was the best, he said these are nothing but "Tortilla's" and that person ordered 8 chapathi's and poor guy had only 2, may be his vision of tortilla's were different.

The buffet was one of the worst I have ever had in the US barring "Potato Bonda", that was actually good, but IMHO, no one can spoil a potato bonda unless he or she is a pathetic cook. Every dining table topic in the US has always ended in comparing the two countries and every foreigner knows about India and our varied heritage and history, I feel so proud of it. But that being said, I would generally avoid getting on to those lines when I am abroad, because knowingly or unknowingly you may hurt somebody's feelings when you compare two countries, obviously for anyone the country comes first and every other thing wud be following that thought. After talking for a good 60 minutes about our country we decided to leave and a formal shake hands happened for the guy who invited for the treat and I was thinking, let this be the last time I am dining with foreigners and let me not come to this country again ... Hope GOD is hearing this loud and clear.

Comments

  1. It is surprising to read the KOLU infrmn, Ican feel it. Enga kaalathil, [ in sixties] kolu vukku maximum kidaithadu vaazhappazha thundu, saathukudi sulai, 1 spoon sundal. We would survey and distribute ourselves to get a variety, ofcourse after singing in the houses. Those days we were not ashamed of singing anywhere, even now it's the same Mamis and patis were young reason early marriages.
    Thatha's is as per those days saying,'' instead of 'kkalla thinnu mannai geeranikkanum, it is vajram thinnu vajram udambil paanju, geeranikkara vayasu''!
    Un periyava senja punniyam nee thappiche!
    hail thatha!!!!!

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  2. I would like to know your mail id pl.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Mathangi - Neenga sollaradhu correct thaan, periyavaa senja punniyam thaan naanellaam innikku indha nelamai la iruken :) btw - ennoda email id is - satish dot nagasubramaniam at gmail dot com.

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  4. "east is east and west is west, and the two shall never meet"...this proverb strictly applies to food and dating :)

    still, maybe those folks should be appreciated for having the guts to try out something they are not comfortable with.

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