You Are Being Served

It's perhaps too presumptuous to evaluate a culture by its five star hotels. I am currently staying at the Oberoi and due to my lack of adventure, I have not ventured into Bangalore. In any US city, having familiar culture landmarks (websites, a knowledge of how to deal with US roads, a rental car), I would be able to navigate by myself. I suppose I could manage the same in Bangalore, but there would be more difficulties.

As such, I've been eating at the hotel frequently. To be fair, the prices are expensive, at least by Indian standards. By American standards, they are somewhat pricey for a night out. And, more things are charged than usual.

I was, for example, eating at a Chinese restaurant within the hotel. I was charged for rice and water, which would be unheard of in the US. To be fair, the water was bottled water, but then, people often suggest that you drink bottled water in India, so it should be the norm and free.

The restaurant was quiet, serving three other groups besides myself. In particular, there was a group of three Indians sitting nearby, a man and presumably his wife, and a friend. Mostly, they spoke English. Mind you, this is an Indian form of English which I will detail in a moment.

India was last occupied by the British, and as such, have been greatly influenced by the British. Indeed, after so many years of control, up until Gandhi famously starved himself, and force the British out of India, there is still, surprisingly, great admiration for the British.

Somehow, the British class system found a kindred spirit in the Indian caste system. The Brits many years ago, I would imagine, found India charming, but treated the majority as lower class, their purpose to serve the British empire. They were not treated as equals. Even so, Indians were quick to please, to imitate the British way, especially in the way of service.

When the British left, this system of British class and servitude was left in place, and the Indians of higher caste and higher education filled the gap, taking the place of privileged Brits. Indian servitude therefore served their own.

The couple sitting near me spoke primarily English, alas, of the Indian variety. The accent is not a British accent, though it is strongly influenced by the British. It has Indian overtones, the sing song nature serving as remnants of the original mother tongue. Women, even among the well-to-do, never quite abandoned the colorful dress of the more conservative Hindu women. The men still bobble the head side to side in agreement, gesture with the hands to emphasize a point.

Even so, the kinds of gossipy conversation, the kind of judging of one another, is common, and it feels very much adopted from the West, even if it may have simply been sympathetic of the East.

I wonder, for example, whether Hong Kong, which was similarly under British rule, held the same kinds of standards, whether the Hong Kong well-to-do speak primarily in English. Perhaps they do.

As I was being served food, I noticed both at the Oberoi and another restaurant within a hotel, that the waiters are there to do more than simply deliver the food. They must also serve the food to you. This is typically done with a spoon and fork used as a kind of scissor/tong device, pressing food or rice, and being plated for your convenience. They are waiting for you to say "stop" as they serve you, which, if you're not aware of this convention, may lead to plate fulls of food, or, presumably, the staff eventually realizing you should have stopped six scoops ago, and asking if you really want more.

The experience, for a middle class person as myself, is both interesting, yet off putting. While I have taken advantage of telling people what to do, more so than I would at a Western hotel, I do find that I would like to do things myself. Still, I'm not prepared to learn the Bangalore style driving, and so I must rely on my driver to come at a certain time to pick me up, as he deferentially says "Absolutely, sir". This is frankly, nervewracking.

Yesterday, as I was travelling with co-workers, they also found the need to pay for everything, and that was awkward for me, although I didn't know what else to do. I certainly didn't have enough cash to cover everything. Fortunately, they could expense it to the company on my behalf.

On yesterday's travels, I bought some photos from a rather persistent child of perhaps 10, who was offering it for 50 rupees, or slightly more than a dollar. I thought that was a plenty fine bargain, but of course, he would have been happy with 10 rupees, and then he kept insisting I buy more and more and more. More photos, sir? Perhaps some money to help donate for some charitable cause, sir? It seems the rule is simple: if you wish to buy, then you should buy some more, and then some more.

I found this to be true, even in rather posh stores. I bought two scarves and some tea, but the store owners wanted me to buy a carpet for 200 dollars. 200 US dollars, that is, as 200 rupees is a mere four dollars, and thus a completely awesome (and thus unrealistic) bargain. That was far more than I wanted to spend, and yet, the people continued to pressure me to buy. The good news, I suppose, is once I decided I didn't want any more, they mostly dealt with the money transaction without hassle.

The buying experience has made me crave the American way where this kind of pressure is non-existent. The only time you are pressured in this fashion, and perhaps in a dishonest sort of way, is in the car rental business, where the people love to tack on any sort of insurance. Or perhaps with the familiar "do you want fries with that"? Otherwise, buying products at a store is often greeted with the amount you owe, and no further pressure to buy anything else.

It amuses me sometime to wonder what would happen if I grabbed one of the bracelets that these street vendors are so happy to push in my face, and then walk away. Surely, they would pester me more to pay, and I would say "but you have kindly offered it to me, and thus it is of highest insult that you should give it to me, and expect me to pay". However, I'm sure they would not see it this way, and would greatly harass me, something I'm not prepared to deal with.

I will say that at least all this harassment is done without anger, without yelling, though I'm sure if I pressed the matter more, it might be.