Foreigners & Me

I am perplexed by all Foreigners (From now on I shall call them Mr.F[no pun intended]).

I always feel like hitting an Englishman. Or calling a American as Homer. Or calling a German as Hitler. Or calling the Thai, Malay or Vietnamese as Cockroach (or anything that moves around) eaters. Or a Newzealander as "precious" (in the same tone as gollum). Or showing the middle finger to a French guy.

I have always interacted with Mr.F. Some of them were my father's or mother's friends who had overstayed in India even after independence. They were very nice to me. They used to get this F chocolates which were very tasty & some strong chocolates which all of you must have tasted.

As I grew up, While doing apprenticeship there were 3 Germans from the home company who had come here to work on cultural exchange basis. They seemed really nice people. I used to take them to many places in the weekends. They were pretty much mischievous like me & so we used to enjoy nicely. We had been to Goa, Agra, Mysore & nearby places in that 6 months. They used to never pay for anything & I used to never ask them also. Transportation charges were borne by our company & only for extra curricular activities I had to pay.

Then in my next company, For the new project for which I was involved there always used to be interactions with Mr.F. Movement of people from either side was more & so I too had to go to plants in the Foreign World.

When I went there for the first time, I was silent & blocked myself to the work in hand. Weekends were just making sure I got perfectly ready for the Monday meetings. All these people with whom I had interacted in office remained just that - Office Colleagues.

The next time round, when I went to France, I was there as a backup to one of the guys & so
had lots of time in my hands. I tried calling these German friends over phone. I had their number because we used to exchange e-mails. They told me that they were busy for them to come to France, but if I went to their place they would join me.

So that Friday afternoon, I took a TGV in the SNCF station that was near my place & went to their place. Visa is not a problem because the present Schengen visa is for 15 countries. I called them from the train station. Their response was that I should catch a cab to their town & it will take less than 20 minutes. I went there. One among the two came, chatted with me & then said that as he was busy he needed to move.

Now for the next 2 days, I was left with no work or no friend to accompany me in that part of Germany. My return ticket was for Sunday evening. This hurt my heart badly.

Finally our US fellows come into picture. As I had learnt the hard way how these people behave with us, when our US colleagues came to India, I interacted with them but never asked them their plans for Weekends. I discussed with them only about work & no personal or special chatting.

As they had heard from some of their fellows who had come here earlier that I was a good guide for all activities they asked me about where I would be joining them. I gave a lame excuse that I had some personal work in my home & I feel bad for not for the inconvenience caused.

Later the next month I had to go to US for the same project, I stuck to myself because of my experience in Germany. But these guys called me to their homes for Halloween Party, one day for Barbecue party in the cold. I had been to with them to their pubs, shopping malls. The warmth they showered was really great.

Now the inference from this adventure is :

1.> Mr. F is just like us. Some are good & some are bad.
2.> Never judge an entire country by one or two of them.
3.> Be optimistic in whatever you do & how much you get hurt on the way.