India shining. But do you guys have ketchup?

Some years before the Indian IT storm hit the world and made people sit up and get acquainted with the actual India as opposed to their romantic notions of it, I happened to be in my role of 'foreign student' in Canada and fielded many ludicrous queries, all to do with people's perceptions of what India and Indians should be like. Most of them were amusing, some quite dumb and a few downright offensive - at least then.

In retrospect all these questions and comment were funny and good fodder for a post. Some were of course the expected ones but some really creative ones left me quite speechless momentarily! Here goes

This is six months into my first year and I'm eating in the campus grill with a friend who I've gotten to know quite well and watching me eat fries he suddenly asks "Do you guys have ketchup in India?". I'm not the authority on what the mark of a developed country, but apparently ketchup is.

Then there was a time I was returning a few library books and got chatting with the librarian who had a pleasant enough conversation with me but I could see by the end of it wanted to say something but didn't know if she should. So mustering all her courage she complimented me on my fluent English considering I must have learned it only in the last two years or so. I mean the English part is a standard question but this was the first time someone assumed I picked it up in two years!

 Another gem from ketchup friend - "how did you get to the airport to catch your flight to Canada, I mean are there roads and cars?" So we can have international flights going around the globe but we're going to bloody make sure noone can take those by not building any roads to the airport.

I don't know if it's what they show on TV and news and documentaries but when someone asked me whether we have bathrooms in India, I really wanted to sue TV channels for the broad, generic and stereotypical portrayal of  India which I think influences the perceptions of most people quite a bit.

These were the ones that stood out in my memory, there were plenty of smaller such incidents and after a while I gave up trying to earnestly explain the reality behind their assumptions.