Day 31: How Indians used to travel
Priya Ramani -
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:51 AM
So we're sitting in Vancouver looking up scanned copies of Sherwoodian, the magazine of the school our fathers went to. There's a hilarious essay about Indians and travelling abroad. It was a senior prizewinning essay in 1959...alas I can't cut and paste it but here's a sample:
"The language problem is a hinderance, and often a cause for frustration. Then there is the problem of etiquette. How many Indian people can eat peas without spilling them with a fork, and can wield a knife and fork with grace and ease? Again, a very few. Imagine a rich "lala" arriving in Monaco and not knowing how to carve a chicken or eat sensibly with a knife and fork! He would be ridiculed, his country disgraced for producing such unmannerly specimens. The poor man would be told by an outraged Frenchman, very politely to leave the hotel. And then he would be the talk of town."
To read the full article, go to the link and scroll to Page 17
http://www.oldsherwoodians.com/tst/1958/Sherwoodian1958.pdf