Page 38 - Seniors Today -Volume no1
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I travelled from Gstaad to Glacier 3000, and the women’s bags, pushed the people to the
Ranveer your face was everywhere. Again, ground and ran off with their valuables.
the place was full of Indians. Once you get to All this in a matter of seven to ten seconds.
the Glacier there is a service building, and the This happens in Geneva often. The muggers
second floor has a terrace with parents and know that Indians have money and specially
families throwing snowballs at each other. women carrying the Louis Vuitton and Dior
The complex has two restaurants. The fifth bags. Post this incident, the group went to the
floor has a shop selling touristy junk and police station but the police refused to lodge a
watches. I see Deepika’s beautiful face staring complaint. It only happened after the victim
at me as brand ambassador for Tissot, and said that if he didn’t lodge his complaint
also that of Virat Kohli -- not a great picture American Express wouldn’t refund his
with those tunnel nostrils. But ‘Mera Bharat traveller’s cheques. This too happens a lot in
Mahan’ bhaiya. Switzerland.
The fourth-floor restaurant serves a-la-carte The Swiss find us loud, obnoxious, rude
meals, stupidly expensive; a cup of coffee and the most demanding of tourists. They
cost 4.5 francs. The food was bad, it was complain that we don’t stand in queues, lie
as if they had served Wednesday’s food on about our children’s ages to get a discount
Friday morning. The staff resented Indians, on admission tickets and urinate in public (I
right from not giving us a table with a valley have seen moms pull their little boy’s trousers
view to extremely poor service. The waitress down and let the kid relieve himself). A lot of
served the soup without the cutlery and Indians who have emigrated and are living
desperate attempts to get her attention didn’t abroad have integrated well into different
work so finally we got up and fetched the societies. And are aware of other cultures and
cutlery ourselves. The rosti disintegrated on sensitivities of the host country. Increasing
the plate was perhaps a little past its best, income levels have allowed many more
devoid of any taste. We had unambiguously Indians to travel abroad, who are probably
ordered Cokes and she thrust a local drink better educated and haven’t done anything
called Zola on us. All in all, a poor dining wrong - but there must be some truth, which
experience. On the way down, we popped into is why the Arce-en-ciel hotel hands over that
the restaurant on the third floor. It served sheet to every Indian. There may be a few
Indian food, there was dal, palak paneer, bad examples, and the stereotype remains
masala gobi, chana masala… all accompanied alive because some of us don’t quite know the
by loud, really loud Indian conversation. meaning of the word queue.
A parent kept calling “Hetal Hetal” and I Finally Ranveer, Cheetah ki Chaal, Baaz ki
wanted to join the effort in finding Hetal. Nazar, Bajirao ki Talwaar aur Bajirao ki
Another mum was shouting for Paresh again Raftaar Sab Sahi Hai, Par Yeh Indians ki
and again. The Indians were having great Pehchaan Kaise Badlein?
time and I couldn’t decide whether this was
Chokhi Dhani, Vishalla or Tikuji-ni-Wadi.
Nevertheless, a good time was being had by
all.
Loaded and loud
Four people were jogging towards a friend
walking along the promenade at Lake Geneva,
and before he knew it, the joggers rushed into
him and his group of friends, put their hands
in his pocket, fished out his wallet, snatched
SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 1
