Indian Inquisitiveness


I get very excited when I hear Hindi or Telugu being spoken in the malls and entertainment centres of Johannesburg but I also get very sadly disappointed when I speak to my fellow Indians.

I have met many people from Hyderabad and other parts of India but all they want to know is where I work and how much I earn before they know my name. I have now started giving them false information about where I live, work and how much I earn. Hey, this is Johannesburg after all, and crime rate is much higher than what is desirable. Better to be safe than sorry.

I met a young Telugu family last weekend when I went to watch Inside Out at the cinemas. There was a wife, there was a husband and there were two little children and it warmed my heart to hear Telugu. Unfortunately my conversation with them lasted just a few minutes and once again I couldn’t make friends. Three years of not knowing any Indians in a foreign land does not irk me as much right now.

Indian inquisitiveness has always been a problem for me. I have estranged myself from several people only because they ask too many questions. I am sorry to face it out of India too but we all need to mind our own business and a friendly conversation with a stranger does not need to become repulsively irritating.

This is how my conversation with the couple at the movies went:

The Wife: “Oh you speak Telugu too, where are you from?”
Me: “From Hyderabad.”
The Husband: “Where in Hyderabad?”
Me: I lied and said “Kukatpally.” It was now my turn to ask where they were from and they promptly replied Anantapur. I was left guessing why did they even want to know where in Hyderabad I lived if they were not from Hyderabad?

Now for part two…

The Wife: “Where do you work?”
Me: I lied and gave them the name of a company I do not work at.
The Husband: “Where in Jo’burg do you live?”
Me: I lied once again.
The Wife: “How much do you earn?”
Me: With a shocked expression, “uh, enough!” By ‘enough’ I actually meant ‘enough questions - let me watch a movie I am paying for!’ Sadly, the message went unheard.

Part three…

The Wife: “Are you married?” to which I replied “yes”.
The Husband: “Does your husband earn more than R50 000 a month, because if he does not it’s hard to get by in Jo’burg.”
Me: “I’m sorry I can’t talk anymore!” - So saying I got up from my seat and fortunately found another one and watched my movie in peace.

The End!

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