Tuesday 9 February 2016

Cafe Leopold - why do you feel so inferior?

It is reported that while 02 Indian families were made to wait for tables a group of foreigners were seated as soon as they came.  On confronting the management & staff over the issue, they were asked this - "why do you feel so inferior?"

Hard to accept but the inferior treatment is true.  Any one who visited places like Leopold can clearly see the discrimination between foreigners and indians unless they are half blind!!! I once waited for 20 minutes despite all tables being empty.  "They are all reserved", was the reply. So, I did the only thing I could do - i.e leave the place. That was 15 years ago and never tried to go back again!!!  But things are very different now in the age of social media.  People may not meekly accept this kind of racism in our own country.

We are a democratic country for 65 years but people such as these can make us feel inferior in our country!!! Often they forget that many of these foreigners are relatively lower paid people whose income may not even be half the income of many indians aspiring to visit such places.    So what makes them a better draw then? fair skin? low cut dresses? possibility of making out? Well your guess is as good as mine!!! or even as one waiter at a 5 star hotel quietly told me - "they are better tippers sir".

This is one racism that media should take up. more than the vip racism  in this country (because vip is also indian), color and country based racism in our own country needs to be taken up so urgently.

we heard that hotels used to have sign boards such as these during the british raj!!!

Hope such things are not happening even now (without the sign boards of course)

many of us do not have the will or commitment to take on such big establishments.  like me - i felt bad about the way i was treated but walked away without doing anything about it.  In such a scenario, Kudos to this lady for taking up her case valiantly.  May there be more like her!!!

Lastly, it is not just about boycotting the restaurant. That may or may not work.  

What is more important is taking pride in being an "Indian". Nobody can make us feel "inferior" in our own country.  We are a growing world super power (despite the colour of our skin) which the entire world is recognising slowly.  When our PM Modi ji speaks the whole world listens with attention - which makes our hearts swell with pride - But if some establishments within our own country feel otherwise and want to puncture our pride - it is a sad state and the Government may also like to step in to ensure that such things do not happen.
 

Women's safety and Flying Camera phones!!!

 A Wonderful post copied from Digital Messiah   Have you heard of Flying camera Phones?   Chances are that many of you did not! Smart phone ...