Experience in an Australian Room

I will like here to relate a little anecdote from my own chat experience which gave me a first hand knowledge about what generally white skinned people think about us, Indians.

It was early in chat days….yahoo was new and I went to “ travel” to an Australian room.

As I was sitting quietly there and trying to figure out what was all the talk about and the general ambience, I found an Australian male was holding sway in the room with his witty and sarcastic comments and women particularly were swooning over his every utterance.

Somehow my id caught his eyes and he checked up my profile and suddenly he asked me (in voice)…”Hey Mr. Sand (my id started with Sand), do you have camels in India?”

I was taken aback by the suddenness of his question and did not realize what he actually meant and I hastily typed “Yes, in Rajasthan.”

This created general mirth and snigger in the whole room and suddenly I realized the significance of his question .I could see people were visualizing me going to office in Rajasthan riding my personal camel and although I was going red inside myself a smile came to my lips.

As I was still in the process of collecting myself the man shot his next question to me…..”Hello Mr.Indian…can you tell me why do Indians stink?”

As I groped inside myself for a proper answer and the whole room was again reeling with laughter I felt like Draupadi while she was being disrobed  in the royal court in full view of raucous males .

I was silent for a second while perhaps Lord Krishna came to rescue me...and I typed this reply (I still vividly remember this)…”Indians stink to avoid monkeys like you Mr.Australian and you are ignored now.”

Suddenly the room went silent for a pause, and Indians who were sitting quietly inside the room until now voiced there appreciation for me “Well said, Sand.”

I felt like an Indian hockey player who , after receiving a goal scored a hat trick against Australia in Australia in front of the their own home crowd.

The Indians now vociferously doubted the legality of the birth of the Australian and so forth as I retired from the room with a feeling that I held my Indian flag high in a foreign country.