varied visitors, strange staff
Let me put it this way. An Indian woman running an English B&B/small hotel. Forget John Cleese and Manuel - it is more like "Goodness Gracious Me" crossed with Peter Sellers's-"The Party" on the Isle of Wight.
In between supporting the children emotionally and virtually running the hotel and restaurant single handedly, life as an Indian Hotelier certainly is not a piece of Barfi. More so, being Indian,(and being a woman who can write- a double whammy) somehow seems to give license to people to be offensive.
Take the example of one guest who walked through the door- as usual I beamed and welcomed them. The gentleman looked me up and down, a sneer on his face, very sceptical, glanced around, his face seemed to imply that somehow i could not be associated with such an elegant environment. I am used to this by now, so my beam stays fixed on my face.
He then asked me,
" What kind of breakfast do you serve"? I am flummoxed. No one has ever asked me this before. Would he ask the same question in every hotel, I wonder? What does he think we served ? Idlis and Dosas for breakfasts or Englands most popular Indian dish " Chicken Tikka Masala". I smiled, gaining composure and reeled our classic English breakfast, Continental, Organic Vegetarian. Somehow he did not seem to believe this and left. What a loss for him- not us. As the breakfast here is to die for as repeatedly commented on by the thousands of guests who have stayed here.
There are innumerous instances of shocked faces of people when I walk to greet them- I dont wear Saris which would be quite a shock walking into a very Western looking hotel, I wear fairly elegant Western clothes, I smile - so I dont understand people's shock or even nervousness. I say, to myself, let it be - as those who greet me with an equally warm smile are those who tend to stay here. Warm, liberal, politically savvy guests.
As for the staff- my experiences are innumerous. Here is one example of rather strange staff behavior:
A young girl we used occasionally, on and off, as a waitress earned 1 1/2 times the minimum wage of a young person her age, plus all tips. One day, we had to replace her with a more experienced and older waiter to step in while the Head Waiter was away. As a woman under 18 she could not serve alcohol and I had to have one staff senior enough to serve alcohol. So, for the day she was replaced. When I told her this, I heard a stream of abuse from this girl over the phone - yelling- hysterical-offensive and personal. This very girl whose attitude of arrogance made us cringe, who used to sit with her foot on the table when she was not waiting, and brushed off mistakes with "it does not matter because they ( guests) dont mind", who was absolutely unable to hear any criticism from me, unable to accept mistakes as her own.
She desperately needed money but when offered work as an occasional morning waitress said " I cant, I am not a morning person". Hey, if you are desperate for money, any work is fine - of course within limits. Can't work in the morning because she was too lazy to come to work. Her telephone was perpetually engaged ( so I could tell her when work was available) and when this was pointed out, said "you can't do me out of work because you can't call me. It is not my fault the phone is engaged." Laughable - in our case despairing.
As a psychologist, I have met a range of people with a whole range of distresses, but some of the workers I have encountered here on the island remind me so much of my previous work place.
The work ethic and values on the island seem sooo laidback and anti establishment, that they remind me of warped hippies who run riot with the sort of "mission to kill" bullying tactics against the establishment. You have to either be hard nosed, a thug, very wealthy or a blonde to survive here.
