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.
Showing posts with label student life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student life. Show all posts
September 08, 2010
August 15, 2008
O Canada
Is it ironic or just pure chance that on a day when most people are wallowing in patriotic fervour I've decided to blog about some good ol' Canada days?
Well, c'est la vie I guess. I decided to write this because I was chatting with Bidisha about some of the crazy times we've had in University and that set me thinking. I don't intend to make this post a very nostalgic, sappy one but if it does turn out to be one.. my apologies!
University: (Starring - Pooja, Juvi, Josh, Bidisha, Tara, 'The network')
- Cody Hall and the quad: life in windsor began here. Landed up in Cody Hall residence at 1 am, one week after classes had begun! 2nd Floor lounge, Juvi's room and the quad were the scenes of the collective crimes of Josh, Juvi and Pooja. We did pay for all the ruckus we created when the head Resident Assistant made us create 'silence in the halls' posters. What a terrible punishment :D. Cody was inhabited by a bunch of colourful characters, at least that's what it seemed like to me. I'm sure they also found the strange foreign student equally weird.
- CAW student centre: the place to stay awake the whole night just before midterms or exams. Most of the time was of course spent socializing with other (strangely enough mostly Indian) students, going over to 7 Eleven every two hours to fuel up, sleeping at odd angles on artfully arranged seats and at odd mad moments having food fights.
- Riverside: outside class and outside the CAW I was mostly to be found at the riverside rollerblading, biking, hanging out (literally) at the monkey bars. Met Bidisha here the first time the day after I landed. There was an awesome fireworks display every last wednesday of June to commemorate the Windsor-Detroit international freedom festival.
- Shwarma joints: open till 5 am, suited my insomniac ways perfectly. The amazing baklava was a big incentive too.
- Partington avenue: offcampus life began here. Met BD here the second time , she lived in the apartment below ours, and thus began our partington adventures with Tara as the third star. Partington was the scene of "sun, moon, water, land", backyard bbqs, 2003 Cricket World Cup matches (collectively bought by Indians & Pakistanis @ $35 per match), network dramas, watching pirated Hindi movies rented from the "Indian store' run by the Bangladeshi aunty.
- coffee counter at Marche: work started at 7 am. I can't believe I used to make it there early enough to grab a coffee and croissant before my shift started - having a monster for a manager might have had something to do with it though. I guess all the cookies and nescafe's newly introduced chai-tea I scarfed made up for the early start.
- the crocodile grill: on campus grill, open till 11pm and thus the food source for my unlearned Indian stomach that never got used to the idea of getting done with dinner by 7 pm. I survived on grilled cheese sandwiches from here for the first few months and when I could eat larger portions of meat - spicy chicken burgers washed down with lots of coke. Needless to say, after one year of Croc dinners, I never regained the thin frame I'd brought to Canada.
...
so that was about university life. Oh and there were classes too - the best part of those being that you could eat and drink in them, call the prof by name, sneak out of class, blatantly walk out of them sometimes, and that almost all midterms were multiple choice.
Well, c'est la vie I guess. I decided to write this because I was chatting with Bidisha about some of the crazy times we've had in University and that set me thinking. I don't intend to make this post a very nostalgic, sappy one but if it does turn out to be one.. my apologies!
University: (Starring - Pooja, Juvi, Josh, Bidisha, Tara, 'The network')
- Cody Hall and the quad: life in windsor began here. Landed up in Cody Hall residence at 1 am, one week after classes had begun! 2nd Floor lounge, Juvi's room and the quad were the scenes of the collective crimes of Josh, Juvi and Pooja. We did pay for all the ruckus we created when the head Resident Assistant made us create 'silence in the halls' posters. What a terrible punishment :D. Cody was inhabited by a bunch of colourful characters, at least that's what it seemed like to me. I'm sure they also found the strange foreign student equally weird.
- CAW student centre: the place to stay awake the whole night just before midterms or exams. Most of the time was of course spent socializing with other (strangely enough mostly Indian) students, going over to 7 Eleven every two hours to fuel up, sleeping at odd angles on artfully arranged seats and at odd mad moments having food fights.
- Riverside: outside class and outside the CAW I was mostly to be found at the riverside rollerblading, biking, hanging out (literally) at the monkey bars. Met Bidisha here the first time the day after I landed. There was an awesome fireworks display every last wednesday of June to commemorate the Windsor-Detroit international freedom festival.
- Shwarma joints: open till 5 am, suited my insomniac ways perfectly. The amazing baklava was a big incentive too.
- Partington avenue: offcampus life began here. Met BD here the second time , she lived in the apartment below ours, and thus began our partington adventures with Tara as the third star. Partington was the scene of "sun, moon, water, land", backyard bbqs, 2003 Cricket World Cup matches (collectively bought by Indians & Pakistanis @ $35 per match), network dramas, watching pirated Hindi movies rented from the "Indian store' run by the Bangladeshi aunty.
- coffee counter at Marche: work started at 7 am. I can't believe I used to make it there early enough to grab a coffee and croissant before my shift started - having a monster for a manager might have had something to do with it though. I guess all the cookies and nescafe's newly introduced chai-tea I scarfed made up for the early start.
- the crocodile grill: on campus grill, open till 11pm and thus the food source for my unlearned Indian stomach that never got used to the idea of getting done with dinner by 7 pm. I survived on grilled cheese sandwiches from here for the first few months and when I could eat larger portions of meat - spicy chicken burgers washed down with lots of coke. Needless to say, after one year of Croc dinners, I never regained the thin frame I'd brought to Canada.
...
so that was about university life. Oh and there were classes too - the best part of those being that you could eat and drink in them, call the prof by name, sneak out of class, blatantly walk out of them sometimes, and that almost all midterms were multiple choice.
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