I have been a victim of ‘mistaken identity’ [nationality wise] so often that I have lost the count now. The latest one happened on this Saturday Eve (9th January 2010). I decided to go to an Indian Restaurant, Authentic Indian Cuisine, with some close friends for my birthday treat. It was a warm evening because it had snowed in the afternoon. It usually gets little warmer after a snow fall and I felt this after my first experience with snow here at Seoul.
Authentic Indian Cuisine, the restaurant where we planned to take our dinner, has an Indian ambience. A majestic Taj Mahal painting on the front wall, lot of decorative Indian traditional vessels placed around, popular Bollywood songs playing in background, aroma, a shelf full of Indian spices among many other things built a sound theme. The place was throbbing with an Indian heart.
But in all this, the staff was oddly all Korean from the female counter manager, to the chefs (we could see chefs through an open glass wall separating the main restaurant space and kitchen), to the waiters. All were Korean. My Russian friend immediately flashed some of his newly learnt Korean to the lady manager and asked for a table (for five).
A chef (Korean national looking, short hair in white apron, above picture) came to take our order. I had never seen a chef taking an order before in a restaurant. Seeing this, I changed my opinion and thought that the restaurant’s way of sending a chef was a terrific way to connect to its customer. Above all, I felt it was better for us as now we could clearly mention, without the fear of the Chinese Whisper, the level of spices for our dishes.
As everybody started giving away order, yet again in Korean, to the chef, I suddenly realized that he was murmuring in Hindi. I exclaimed in excitement and said “Aap hindi jaantein hain?” [Do you know Hindi?]. The chef reciprocated with same excitement and asked me the same question.
It turned out that this chef was from Darjeeling (in India). Later, I told him that I was trying to speak to him in Hanguel (Korean Language) because I thought that he was a Korean national. He laughed and said that he had thought that I was a European.
Truly, Mistaken Identities.
The only thought that came to me after this was that INDIA is truly unique, diverse, and incredible.
-Nalin Chakoo
