(Stereo)Types
There are two distinct types of NRIs one can easily come across when you are away from India.
Type A - The people in this group love it when they see another person of Indian origin. They go out of the way to be friends with them. After all, we are all away from home and we need to bond so we have one another in times of crisis - thats what they seem to think. You can depend on such people, they have no bad intention and mostly are nice though they might be a little embarassing sometimes when they talk about Indian movies or places or politics when a non-Indian is around and you want the conversation to end quickly.
Type B - The people in this group want nothing to do with India or Indians or even the ones that look like Indians but are from Singapore or Malaysia or Kenya or Fiji. They think they've seen enough Indians in life and don't want to be stuck with the same group especially when you are outside India. Its one thing to get assimilated with the lcoals and quite another to be deliberately rude with fellow countrymen. And people in this group are mostly annoying.
Invariably, these people end up working in a restaurant or subway or some place where you are destined to go. They smile at all the non-Indians and frown at you. And you end up scolding all the Indians in the world and wonder why we are rude by nature.
posted by D LordLabak @ 2:04 PM
14 Comments:
lolz..reminds me of a recent trup to canada..
bumped into this guy who 'looked' Indian...
so was just trying to make some conversation...and asked him
"you dont sound so, but you look Indian.Are u...?
His reply was immediate..
"Nope. I am frm Kenya..."
I gave him a quizzical stare mostly because of the tone he replied with. Sounded kinda rude to me..as if he dint like being called Indian..
So I just left it at that..
and then his wife came over fully dressed in saree, jewellery and stuff..
and she started off in Hindi..the usual things that happen in such cases..
then this guy came back again...and after seeing his wife talk..warmed up and said he was like a 3 or 4 th generation immigrant there and has now settled in Canada..
I mean, wutz the big deal in saying where you are from...
Just to say, u get these sorta types too around :-)
have u met too many instances of the second kind??
I think your veiled reproach on who you classify as Type B Indians smacks of a lack of appreciation of the complex hues that the indian identity can take, whic his especially true in the current case, if you compare indian migratory people from Africa, the Carribean and elsewhere who have resided in their new contries for several genrations, to recent ones in the US. They may look and eat like Indians back home, but in many ways, the Indians who are in Malaysia, Nigeria, Suriname, or even the second and third generation indians in the UK may share less of cultural context with recent emigrants than you might be comfortable with... Have you tried reading Naipaul? Why don't you get to know them a bit better as individuals first, than judge them on the basis of how they look?
cheers
Sach
some bad exp? :(
:)
Cheers!
:-) True ginkgo, I agree.
Naikutti, of late...yes.
Sach, I was only talking about Indians (passport holders) acting that way. I am not talking about immigrants of Indian parents who belong to some other country. I personally know and am related to such 3rd or 4th generation people who have nothing to do with India. But I wasn't talking about them. When an Australian or an Englsih guy (of Indian origin) supports their cricket team when they play against India you know there is absolutely nothing we have in common (:-)) except probably (in some cases) religion.
i have had instances when ppl wrote what i thot ...but never had an exp like this....i wrote the same....yes the same stuff to post today....i classified them as smiling desis no-smile desis ...
i read all ur prev posts....but i dont know what to comment...i am still in shock...
You left Type C : Those who are from the same place as you are (no, not even via Singapore/Africa/Carribean) but still feel as if landed from the moon or mars :P. There are quite a lot like this.
Ofcourse you can't discount the ones mentioned by 'ME' especially if you had been a student in the US before.
-narayanan
Me, I just discovered you are my evil twin.:-)
Ranganathan, thganks for reminding me of type c. In fact both types A and B might belong to type C. Right?:-)
Not at all, Type A is real nice, the ones you would want/have to meet :). Type C is exact opposite of A. In a way, Type C is even worser than a Type B x-(.
Meeting too many Type C's will make you keep away from Type A's.
Type C parthu veruthu pona,
narayanan
Or, how about those types of NRIs, on a visit to India, think they have a solution for everything that ails the country?
yes Naikutti.
Ramki, you should read my earlier post NRI Homecoming. The type you mentioned s a complex one....some are well-meaning while others are just "vetii bandha".
Narayanan...lol. I misconstrued your Ranganathan Street as Saint Ranganathan.:-)
nice one..off topic..lordlabak?..u know the phrase came from the place where i am staying rite now;-)....
Ajay, thats news to me. Lordlabak has been there in tamil lingo for a while and it was made popular by Vivek is a movie. I would love to know the origin actually.
Deepa
was jus kidding..since the town is named Lubbock we here used to joke...who knows prob its true!!
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