WHAT AN IRONY……….STRANGERS IN ONE’S OWN HOMELAND

After winding up an exhausting business meeting in Connaught Place, I thought of having a coffee at CCD. The name ‘Cafe Coffee Day’ makes an instant connection with coffee cravings without burning a hole in your pocket. Hats off to the creative mind behind its punch line - 'A lot can happen Over Coffee’ How relevant.
I seated myself on a couch near the glass window and ordered for my regular 'Tropical Iceberg'. The waiter who took my order gave a fake ear to ear smile - 'Mam, with ice-cream".
I too equaled him with one of my fake smiles adding-'Yep! With a scoop of Vanilla'. I don’t understand that whether the smiles of these waiters are just courteous or a tool to compel you to add few more calories to your coffee. Luckily for the time being, calories are not a matter of concern for me.
While waiting for my coffee, I had two options either to scan the young crowd with my eagle eyes or to drown myself in the tabloid lying on the glass table like a lazy dog. I retreated to the later option rather than making some of the young love birds conscious with my scrutiny. (Here I will like to confess that sometimes I enjoy being mean.....enough to make others uneasy). The unusual delay in the order left me with ample time to chew on an article on "Racism in OZ".
I was in the midway of the article when somebody on the side table piped - '' I just love chowmein, especially if it’s red hot''. Though the tone was casual, the person has clearly emphasized the word love which sounded more like laav. "Chinese is my all time favorite but just the thought of sphagetti’s waters my mouth "- followed a comparitively louder reply in a deliberately modulated husky tone. Both the conversant gave a high five followed by deafening giggles.
I lifted my head from the article to notice what had urged the guys to declare their love for Chinese so loudly. The dual meaning of their conversation sank slowly.
The immature teens were teasing the three chinkies who had just entered the cafe. One of them wore red off shoulder knee length tunic .......Oh! So that was it -'Red Hot Chowmein'. The second was in parrot green spaghetti over khaki shorts. They were closely followed by the third petite figure wearing a pink tee, short enough to give a full view of her naval ring and a denim Capri that terminated few inches above her tattooed ankle. The trio was looking quite sizzling............had they been taller they might have competed with the hot trio of Charlie's Angel.
Before, I could absorb much teasing going around; the waiter came with my order. However, his coming never interrupted the thought process on the contrary the coffee gave a speed to my thoughts & took me back to the old days like a time machine. It reminded me of the time when I was in college and many of our colleagues from East India were nicknamed as half plate chowmein, chi chai chu, Chinese bomb, Chinese mobile and many more weird ones. Due to their morphological difference from us they were often treated as foreigners. It was sometimes really funny when the auto rickshaw drivers tried to high charge them and negotiated fares in their typical lingo of broken English–“Madam Bhagwaan go to Raja Mandi Four - Tee rupeesh…….u India gueesht…..dishcount last 30 rupeesh……Pleaze madam shit”
They often complained that it was difficult for them to find a rented accommodation as North Indians have preconceived notions about them. They were always treated as hap guys who booze and are big time party animals. The chinkie girls were subject to frequent eve teasing as they were considered to be soft targets due to their dressing style.
My thoughts were really running fast , I recollected one of the scenes from the SRK‘s super hit movie ‘Chak De India” where two East Indian female players were going through the registration process for the ‘Women’s - Indian Hockey Team’ & the man at the registration counter says – ‘Aap hamare mehmaan ho’ i.e. ‘you are our guest’; to which one of the female retorted by saying – ‘ Hum hamare Desh mein hi mehmaan banke kaise Khush reh sakti hain?’ i.e. ‘How can we be happy by being guests in our own country?’
What is all this? Is it not a form of racist like behavior (though its not an issue of skin color)? Are not we big time hypocrites?
How can we question Aussies for their racial behavior? How can we Judge them or blame them when we ourselves sometimes consciously / subconsciously act like racist? If we can not treat people from all parts of India as equal how can we expect any other country to treat us like them? So the change should begin from one’s own home turf. First, we need to change ourselves before trying to change others.