Got a funny/interesting experience to share ?

Send it here. This is a collection of true anecdotes that relate to people of Indian origin in other countries or of people of other countries in India.

From: Shivram (halans@intelsat.int)

The post reminds me of the time I was travelling to Okhlahoma. The kid 
next to me was very curious about me. My color and features did not 
indicate if I was white or black or hispanic. He kept looking at 
me...until curiosity got the better of him. He asked if I spoke spanish. 
I said No. He kept quite for a couple of seconds. He asked me what 
language I spoke. I then asked to take a guess. By then he was fidgeting 
like crazy.... He asked me if was american. I said yes (a lie). That 
seemed to confuse him even more. His brows were furrowed as frowned very 
hard. When I finally told him that I was from india, his face lightened 
up. He smiled from ear to ear. He was very excited and began asking 
questions like a machine gun. Do have snakes...Tigers....have you seen 
them...have you touched them..have you ridden an elephant.....do you have 
coca-cola. Are all indians vegetarian.... Did the guy who built the Taj 
Mahal cut of his people's hands..... How is it possible for to speak 
english... Why do women have red dots. I was surprised that even though 
his questions were stereotypical.... he did know something about india. 
For a change. And this kid was only about 12.  
I told him yeah we have snakes...but they are O.K. The tigers are even 
better... They are very friendly.....They come close to you and sniff 
you... If you are vegetarian they leave you alone. But if you eat meat 
then they will eat you. That's why most indians are vegetarian. Why do 
women wear dots....? Each dot is unique. Since most indian women are very 
beautiful their husbands might be confused so they look at each dot to 
identify their wives. Also at night the dots will shine..like a 
flashlight. We regularly ride elephants. They are big but very gentle. 
The ones that are not gentle we use in bucking elephant rides...just like 
the rodeos here. His eyes grew bigger and bigger. As for coke I said...it 
was first made out of coconut...in india. But indians didn't like it 
much. So the americans bought it and named it coke (from coconut). The 
king who built the taj mahal...on seeing the taj mahal so beautiful...cut 
of the hands of the people so that nobody could touch it and thereby 
dirty it ot destroy it. 
And I told him more and more about india. He was shaking his head in 
amazement when I disembarked.
Shivram.


From: Paul E Jeganthan (paulej@u.washington.edu)

My sister was married and had 2 teenage children when she came to the USA. 
Shortly after she went to an all Am wedding.  The young male usher
approached her and took her hand to lead her into the church, as this is
the custom in the country.  My sis stared at him, pulled her hand from him
and told him, "I am married"!

From: Soumit Sahana (ssahana@msmail.bfsec.bt.co.uk)

An introduction. My name is Soumit Sahana . I am a Bengalee from Cacutta.
I have been located in the United Kingdom for the last 6 months and will
be here for the major part of the next 3 years unless I alter my career
plans. While working with Fujitsu-ICL I had worked in Honkong but this is
my first experience of living in the loony west on a long-term basis.

I wanted to share with you my observations about Indians using community
gyms ( which are really affiliated to universities / youth associations ).

The first agenda on many of my Indian counterparts' minds after arriving
here seems to be 'to look good'. Thus we have both middle-aged fathers and
young sloppy freshly-graduated kiddos all sweating it out in the gym in an
effort to catch the eyes of some oversexed middle-aged equally desperate
goris . They have a sort of herding mentality in that they always go to
the gym together and all go through the same exercises though physically
they may be a range of 5ft/100kg to 6ft/50kgs.

More interesting perhaps are the way in which they oggle gori flesh while
whispering to each other in Hindi that Indian girls are much prettier and
have better skin/hair/whatever. While using the showers they are the only
lot who do not strip completely . Theres one bloke I know, who wears a
peach coloured VIP in there. They also always , never use gels and carry
soggy soap cakes in grocery-polybags under their arms for their ablutions.
While bathing the soap cakes inevitably make it to the floor and there are
a lot of deshis groping around and sickly 'eckhkuz mes' . Some of these
characters visit the gym only for the bathing facilities , either lacking
or trying to save on hot water at home. They share 40p cokes and ?1 hair
dryers amongst 6 and talk knowledgeably about Linford Christies . And of
course they never remember to get all their towels / combs and talk of how
Indians are a more friendly lot as they would share anything with friends
( including the 12p tissue pack at 2p each )

cheers , Soumit