No skinheads. At least so far. No taunts. Smiles all over everyplace that I've gone. And the strong immigrant community bonding - Indian shopkeepers, Jamaican bus drivers, Armenian cafe owners - they all love you!
But is there an undercurrent? I see signs of it. It is not race, but class. In a nice suit, your skin can be white, yellow, brown and people are always polite. But what if you were not? Would they still be the same.
I am on the last train home. Home for now is a distant suburb of London. Apparently our firm rents there because it has a large asian community. Ghetto mentality? I so hate that.
The train doors are still open. I had run all the way from the tube to the overground. I think that I could have afforded to take it easy. I've been sitting here for about 5 mins. I can see people running up. The train doors are about to close and I see someone who looks like a lawyer running up. White. Good suit and a leather bag. Moneyed. The station attendent doesn't blow his whistle. He wants to wait for the guy. And I think that it is such a nice gesture - to wait for the man. He gets on panting and all out of breath and I see out of the window an Indian guy running up. The doors are almost about to close. I think he'll make it. But he keeps slowing down and looking behind him. I can't see who he is waiting for. But he still makes it in front of the doors. But he doesn't get on! And why isn't he pushing the switch to keep the door open? The attendent is asking him to step away from the yellow line! And I see him pleading - asking for that extra minute that I think was already given away to the lawyer. But surely, another 10 seconds won't hurt! And as we pull out, I see the despair and frustration of the poor guy and I see his wife running up wrapped in her sari. What works? White skin? A good suit? I don't know. But either way, it isn't nice.
ubergeek, the
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2 comments:
Hey,
Good one. Though a lil hard to imagine the sitn :-).. glad to know that u r abroad.. where u always dreamt to be..
Thank you. Hmm.., I wouldn't say that I had always "dreamt to be" abroad. I felt (and still feel) rather uncomfortable in India where I really can't explain why I feel like an alien. I find very few people there whom I can talk to and have a reasonably interesting conversation. And even fewer who appreciate and understand the way I think.
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