How many beers in your culture?

It was a weekday evening, and my wife and I were at a local Pizza Hut restaurant near our house, hardly a 15-minute walk. The skies threatened - as they often do in Vancouver, BC - to dump a load of liquid sunshine on our heads at any time, but being the brave souls that we were, we had walked our way. And the skies opened up a little, right as we entered the restaurant.

The restaurant was far from crowded, but the lobby sure was. There was tons of teenagers, some sitting and chatting, and other standing in the little reception area of the restaurant. A very chaotic scene, and the waitress (or part-owner?) was visibly flustered. She rolled her and generally gave the feeling that she would rather have a root canal than those teenagers in her lobby.

"Could you please wait outside?" she asked, with a mixture of irritation and anger, clearly annoyed that such a chattering bunch was occupying most of the front of the restaurant. "I am worried about security, so could you please wait outside?", she said. It was raining outside by now, so her "request" was a curt, not to mention borderline arrogant, as she showed them who was the boss. Three teenagers immediately left the restaurant, while a gaggle remained, though subdued. I wondered if her attitude was because they were really making a nuisance of themselves or if she hated the fact that they were Orientals. I will never know for sure.

The other guy at the till noticed us, and we were seated, by the same woman who drove out the teenagers. She was polite enough to us, and showed us to our seats. We ordered Pizza, and after what seemed like an eternity, the food arrived. I took one good look at it and sure enough, they messed up our order. We didn't want any cheese on our Pizza, they had forgotten this and made it with Pizza. We were hungry by the time this fiasco masquerading as Pizza arrived, and were forced to wait for a little while longer. Oh, well.

While we were waiting for our food, we noticed a caucasian couple sitting two tables away. Their table was filled with beer bottles: I counted 5 at a casual glance. If he had drunk all of them, he probably was drunk by now. The woman was dabbing her eyes with a piece of tissue, and not wanting to intrude on their privacy I looked away. The guy ordered another beer and I overheard the waitress saying something about "this would have to be last call then", and then walk away. When the beer arrived, he drank it down like water. I was considerably impressed.

Our food arrived - finally - and we began to dig in. The restaurant was mostly quiet, and we began to enjoy the pleasure of each others company.

"Can I have another beer?", I heard the guy asking. Didn't she say something about "last call" ?

The waitress told him that he had one too many and so she could not serve him anymore beer.

"But I only had three!", he said, "She had the other three". The waitress was not impressed by this and held her ground.

It was then that the conversation took a turn that I never expected. The man was quite upset over this. He tried several tacts, the plead, the anger and then he attacked her ethnicity.

Taking one long look at her badge, "I don't think you know Canadian culture", the guy said. The waitress looked stunned upon hearing this comment. "We are used to drinking a lot of beer. This is not Indo-Canadian culture you know? I don't think you really know Canadian Culture. It may be wrong to drink a lot of alcohol in your culture, but it isn't in ours", he continued. Raji and I looked at each other, and sure enough the waitress was upset.

She said "Stop this conversation right here. I am not from the Indo-Canadian culture, but I do know Canadian law. This is the law. I am not allowed to serve you more than 6 beers". The guy protested, but she took their plates and then walked away. The guy skulked in a corner, clearly upset at not getting his way.

After about 5 minutes, they got up, and went out of the restaurant. We thought they were bailing without paying, and considered warning the owners about them trying to possibly sneak away. They thankfully stood outside smoking. The waitress actually was taken aback at their disappearance as well, but her fears were allayed seeing the two of them smoking away outside. She continued about her business, and by the time she had gotten back to check on them, the two of them had high-tailed it, without paying!

The other guy at the store tried running around to spot them, but they had vanished. I was left wonder if they knew what Canadian culture was. The recipient of the vitriol, the waitress shrugged her shoulders, and went on about her business. She clearly knew more about Canadian Culture than this particular piss drunk caucasian guy.

As an immigrant, I am always cognizant of how people perceive my actions, but such accusations of a lack of understanding on the part of immigrants from people who themselves lack an understanding, I had never seen. I suppose there is a first time for everything.

Something to think about.

I quit INDE.

Well, after slightly over 3 years, I quit from INDE Electronics, Richmond, BC. It was quite a different experience, unlike any other company I have ever worked at. A new chapter in my life begins.

http://www.visto.com, in the Queen Anne district of Downtown Seattle. No showers though, so I gotta find a way to shower after cycling to work.

The new Wallace and Gromit rocks.

I saw the "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" recently (October 8th) and it rocks. I have been anticipating this movie ever since it was announced, and I went the day after it was announced, being a big fan of the lovable-but-not-so-smart Wallace and the mute-but-supremely-intelligent dog, Gromit.

Nick Park, as is usual, sets up a very humorous situation for Wallace and Gromit: the owners of a business that protects the "belongings" of the residents of their town. The movie itself is a fascinating combination of excellent claynimation, drama, suspense and memorable characters and scenes, which is sure to bring a smile to the lips of a lot of people.

I enjoyed it immensely, particularly the subtle comedy that several of the earlier offerings of Mr. Park made famous. ("Call me Tottie", for instance). The kids will love the characters, and the adults will love the animation and the subtle comedy that is bound to go over kids' heads.

I highly recommend it!