Wednesday, July 20, 2005

So which color are you?

When this stint of mine in Germany gets over, I would have spent close to three years in Europe. Three years is a long time - to get used to a place, to come to terms with the idiosyncrasies and the inherent biasses people have and to learn to live with it. I have lived a life of a stranger here in Europe with no knowledge of the language and customs. I have never complained about the suspicious stares and the cold shoulders because I realized quite early that if I want to be accepted, it is my duty to learn the language and understand their customs, take that extra step so that I could ask for favors and get my work done rather than expect them to travel the extra mile.
But there's this thin line of difference between suspicion or self defence and outright prejudice. I would understand why a old woman pretends to be deaf when I ask her for the way to a hotel, while she's talking a stride with her puny puppy. But when a driver in a bus does it to me, when I give him the money for a ticket and makes me stand next to him for five whole minutes, while at the sametime men who speak his tongue who board the bus two, three stops hence get their tickets and seat themselves completely, I am sorry but I don't get it! Through my entire journey from my guest house to my company HQ, I was standing right next to him politely requesting him for my ticket over and over again and he acted as if I was invisible, as if I didn't exist. And when he finally did, he gave me a smirk (and No! I did not imagine it!) as if he's proved a point.

~@~
Two gentlemen, one German and the other Indian, who have landed in Frankfurt by the same flight have been asked to share a taxi on their way back home. They assent and wait under the summer morning sun while a taxi makes its way next to the platform. A plump taxi driver gets out wishes them good morning, picks the heavy suitcase of the German colleague and places it carefully in the boot of the car. He then looks at the Indian colleague who has an equally huge suitcase, walks back to his seat to start the taxi. Is he being paid any lesser by the Indian colleague? It's the same flight and the same destination - and why would someone do this?
I will not generalize and call this a cultural trait. As much as I would want to, I am not going to make historic references and blame a whole country or a continent because two fools have so far have reacted this way. Because I know when I do that I am making the same racist, foolish mistake that has been irritating me since morning, that I believe belongs to a race far less human than the one I belong to. But one day, when I get to speak this language, I would want to stop and ask these taxi drivers and bus drivers about that mysterious pill they take before lunch or after dinner that blesses them with such an unbelievably irritating and nasty attitude.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's strange Rathish, but in the 5 years I've spent here, I haven't had a single encounter like the ones you've mentioned. On the contrary, both taxi and bus drivers have been quite nice on every occasion. I've just been lucky not to have encountered any "fool" like that, I guess.

Behaviour like the one shown by the taxi driver exists everywhere. Over here we attribute it to color; back home - where a taxi driver might offer the same privilege to a man in a suit - we would attribute it to class.

12:11 AM  
Blogger krishna canchi said...

thank god, u havent jumped to generalisations!!
in both the situations u've mentioned, do u think speaking german wudve saved the damage? most probably not.my experience says so...ppl who are nice respect u, irrespective of whether u speak their language or not. ofcourse, some of them go the extra mile and try to help u. others say "u r in germany. so u must speak german".
coming to those who hate the brown-skinned..not all are "racists"-they hate us because they feel we take away their jobs, cheat them, ruin their country..not because we dont speak german!!..wonder who makes them feel so?? - the great selfless brown-skinned asylum seekers!my profs or ur boss arent directly affected by illegal immigrants...but taxi-drivers are!!
and ofcourse, thers also a big movement against immigration thru legal channels...
all said and done, i think it all boils down to one thing - exposure...we can only feel sorry for the ignorance of the taxi driver..
have had worser experiences, since iam in the east...but let me stop here...before it gets longer than the original post:)

1:42 AM  
Blogger Kumari said...

I am brown, i speak English in a Thamizh accent and i do not roll the R. Hell! I am proud of myself :)

And i have never seen u lose ur temper on ur blog...in person yes ...but not in ur blog ...take care :)

5:26 AM  
Blogger Rathish said...

@Paramanu - same here manohar. I can remember a lot of nice experiences I have had with people when I was in france or during my last stint here, which is probably why I still have the sense not to generalize it. I actually went back to those incidents to see if there's anything I have done that could have offended them. Can't think of any!

@KP - Thought of all that too and wanted to write about it but was afraid that when I try explaining it, I might end up generalizing somewhere. You have put forward your arguments wonderfully well :)

@Kumari - So am I (proud of my tanglish! ;)). But when you are in a country and don't speak a language, you miss the opportunity to get to know so many people, lose a chance to learn so many things and I do feel bad about it! And as for losing my temper, I don't know whether I lost it this time :) Since, I saw it firs hand, it just came out more forcefully (like the hindu episode). I can tell you when I actually lost my temper - here and here.

12:10 PM  
Blogger Praveen said...

This is truly dreadful, but I havent heard of any others who encountered similar situations, maybe they did but it did not come out in the open.

9:38 AM  

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