Friday, January 06, 2006

As an Indian

Sometime back, I visited a local supermarket with my friends. We went to the counter to pay, a white skinned foreigner came and waited to pay after us. As soon as the cashier saw the foreigner, she took money from him and we had to wait till his transaction was completed. When I protested, she said, 'He was waiting so... '. He was waiting and what were we doing? He had not asked that he should be given special treatment and be allowed to pay before others. It was the cashier who did that.

I made a lot of noise before leaving. If we are treated like second class citizens in our own country by our own people, what are we supposed to do? I am all for being hospitable to the foreigners. But why treat them as if they were superieur or more important than the Indians, that too in India? Do they treat foreigners that way in their country? Isn't everyone supposed to follow the same rules there? Why don't we follow our own rules here?