when people talk of foreign hand i remember my stay at university in india.
we had a great friend from ethiopia. at the age of 55, he had come to india to do a phd. coming from a land known for impoverishment, his apathy to money and luxuries was surprising. he had opportunity to do ph.d. in denmark, but he came to india because he liked his professor’s lectures in ethiopia(unlike other proessors whose trips abroad would alternate between east and west coast of USA, this professor travelled far and wide. recently he was to madagascar. dont ask me where it is.)
he had a very young wife and a kid who laughed roaringly at anything said to her. the kid was born in india and was given indian name.
he was very dark, shining drak complexion like michael jordan. but unlike jordan stood at 5’ 4’'. he was surprised at ‘the people in india dont have sex’. i reminded him that a billlion population has not dropped from heaven. he interviewed a few students in group and knowing that most were virgins, was shocked.
he was damned afraid of computers. for some one who could do field theories and solve equations involving plenty of variables (albeit wrongly often, but who doesnt make mistakes) his fear of technology was surprising. he buttered me for a week to get a few graphs done, and i am not an expert.
he cooked great dishes. i still miss those dishes. there was no other way to eat them unless we ge get invited to his home. i had dropped in at his place on many sunday afternoons, without invitation, very courteous and polite and his wife would always give something to eat. his daugher would be busy chattering in a mix of hindi and kannada mixed with her mothertoungue.
and then we had yet another african visitor, for a couple of months. this guy was tall and helped the malyalis to win a football tournament against bengalis. mallus had never won before and never stood a chance. bongs were thoroughly annoyed. he was young and tried unsuccessfully to win the heart of a bengali girl around. maybe because of football skills going against bongs, or whatever reasons, he was not sucessful. but they became good friends. she recently told me that they are still in touch on e-mail, thogh in his country, he gets to see e-mail facility once in six months.
it is very interesting how foreigners enrich our culture and civiliznation.
ZZ I will not be as eloquent as you but have an encounter of my own to share.
During my stint in Pakistan, I had been asked by my mum to go pay for the electricity bill, which usually you pay at a bank.
The closest bank I knew had an outside window and a long line formed in front of it for people who were paying assorted bills. A chinese teenager wearing some hightop trainers and all came up went to the front of the line and asked some questions, I did not hear him at all. On his walk to the back of the line I stopped him and asked him where he was from. he told me he weas from Vietnam and his family had moved to Pakistan. John and I started chatting about music and the karachi scene. All our conversation was in english. I just told him to stay with me and pay his bill because the line was long and this was teh first time I had spoken to a teenager in pakistan who was not Pakistani and I wanted to hear about his expereinces in Pakistan.
Soon someone from behind us said "abay woh tumhara kya lagta hai uss ko peechay bhejo", someone added a remark "itna chikna bhi naheen hai chapta"
I was hoping that JOhn would not know these words but it seemed like he knew teh words. Just as I was starting to apologize to him on the choice of words of the other people, John turned around and in perfect mix of lalukhaitya style plus some major Punjabi curse words informed that him and his pets had certain sort of relationships with certain female members of the other person's family.
I was not sure what was I shocked at, that he spoke urdu or that he had said that. Anyways we had a small exchange of words but JOhn and I became good friends. he was a christian Vietnamese breakdancer, whose parents were stricter than mine and aside from his race, he had a punk spikey haircut which made him stand out even more.
I tried many Vietnamese dishes at his house, but the best stuff was his mother's take on desi food which had a rather unique flavor.
I had known John for just over 5 months when i left Pakistan, and when i returned for a visit a few years back he had moved. Last I heard he was moving to Houston.
It was very interesting to hear his views and outlook of growing up in Pakistan. His uncles and aunts were all in pakistan and most kids were born citizens. This was the first time i realized that we actually have a decent number of chinese and Vietnamese people living in Pakistan.