Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, will be familiar with the fear I have had of sub-continent men in Spain.
When it comes to men, in general, I haven’t been the best with the whole ‘live-and-learn’ analogy; but in this particular context, I have been queen.
Passing off successfully as a South-American has kept me a good arms distance from my Pakistani, Bangladeshi cyber-café/vegetable-shop buddies in Madrid.
Until yesterday.
“Excuse-me madam, are you from India?” said the Pakistani owner of the Internet café around the corner from my house.
I waited a good 2-minutes before deciding how to answer this question, and incapable of lying, I said yes.
“NO FUCKING WAY” was the reaction I got. (Que coño dices!)
See, you need to keep in context that I have been frequenting this Pakistani-brotherhood-cyber-café for over 3-months now. It’s the best one close to me, so I decided not to be anal about the birthplace of it’s owners.
“Wow”, he continues, still in state of utter bewilderment. “Do you speak Hindi?”
“Yes, of course I do,” I replied sheepishly.
“So you have been eavesdropping on our conversations for three months!?” he says, thankfully with a smile.
I smiled back.
“So come to my house one day, I live just down the road,” he continued, to which I almost replied “why the fuck would I want to do that?”, before he said “meet my family, have tea with my wife, she gets lonely”.
*phew*
“I have been here for 14-years; we hardly meet people from our muluk. We would be delighted to have you around.”
That was nice ay. Very straightforward and warm without the slightest tinge of threat.
So when I walked in today, of course instead of the Pakistani Uncle with kids, were his two young single Pakistani nephews. As if they knew I would be passing by!
“Namasteji! you are from India,” one of them says in Urdu.
“Yes,” I say, as neutrally as I could without sounding rude but being clear I don’t have time for a chat.
Of course, that vibe wasn’t picked up on, and the next thing I know is that he has pulled up a chair and is sitting next to me. Great.
Anyway, 5-minutes into the chat I think he got the hint. But he wasn’t being a pain. He was just curious.
Overall I got a good vibe. Maybe one day I will take them up on the offer of passing by their house, perhaps not for tea, but definitely for the home made biryani!
Funny story. You miss the food, not the men.
It’s difficult to get to know people when they suspect that you are hitting on them. Girls like yourself are naturally suspicious of our motives. Not all of us are obsessed with marriage or relationships. I have a very good indian friend called Seema who is married herself and I also have several unmarried girls of your age who are just friends because I dont have many male friends. It’s nice to have people over who are friends rather than relatives to share a meal and have a laugh. I think it is because I find it easier to relate to girls than men because they are more intelligent or mature in terms of human relationships. BTW I am a british guy with Pakistani parents.