Dear Tom, You are More Racist and Less Superior Than You Think

Though the British quitted India 69 years ago, we still live virtually colonized by the West. Back in the day, we were scrubbing the toilets of those who raided our country and now we are licking the behinds of our ‘white’ bosses - we were and are basically cleaning their shit. Its just an advancement from blue collared to white collared slavery. And this development has been facilitated by a handful of greedy Indian middlemen who betrayed the rest of us. The rulers who joined hands with the invaders centuries ago, seem to have reincarnated as the top officials of the biggest IT companies in the country.

I nurture no fascination for the west. I deliberately chose to work in an Indian MNC and turned down every onsite opportunity. Not that I harbor hatred against them, but people like Tom fill me with aversion and force me into believing that they are all the same, with little or no variation in their perspective of people who don’t share their race or background. Tom takes it for granted that employees at the offshore offices will stretch for 13 hours a day and be available even during weekends. Chadda aids him in getting it done. Chadda holds a key position in our India office, and he reached there by serving as the softest of all ass wipes to his foreign counterparts. I have never seen Chadda standing up for us. Unfortunately, there is a Chadda in every organization who screws it for everyone else.

Apparently, Tom and his team, for reasons best known to them, hate everything Indian. Maybe they despise us because “we are eating up their jobs”. So here is the thing, Tom. We didn’t offer to take away your jobs. Your management came up with this profitable idea and sent business here. Where else would they get brilliant engineers working 15 hours a day for sandwiches? I appreciate the job opportunities introduced by the outsourcing model, but the kind of population, rather educated population we boast, we can prosper through organizations of Indian origin as well. Your infrastructure, conversely, would collapse without us. You will be left paying triple the salary to people with half the skillset. Your Silicon Valley would have been washed out of the map.

Tom, during his India trip, didn’t spare a stone unturned, to insult us – our food, our culture, our English. I was bound by my cultural refinement, else I had no dearth in responses to provide for Tom’s sarcasm. For the first time in life I felt the need to abandon my Indian hospitality and rub some salt on the guest’s face.

Yes, my food is spicy, flavored and greasy; and it will be. And because you take so much pride in being an American citizen of British origin, let me enlighten you, this is the same Indian spice (along with our indigo and jewelry) , that allured your forefathers to this land of ‘snake charmers’. So when you complain about too many Indians working in your country, I hope you realize how burdening it was for us to host your forefathers for over two centuries. (My people have at least displayed the visa authorized by your officials, at the airport, and are paying taxes - a lot of taxes.)

Yes, the family pic on my desktop is quite packed, I am glad you find amusement in it, but don’t you think you went too far by poking jokes at my mother. So my mother has 8 children, and just one baby daddy. And your mom has 3 children from 2 marriages and one high school fling. How about you respect my society, and I don’t judge yours?

By the way, I am completely aware of my heavy accent, but English is not my native language, I have learnt it. And I get confused by your, “I am NOT doing NOTHING.” What’s with the use of dual negatives in the same sentence, isn’t that grammatically incorrect? And why do you mix up ‘their’ with “there’ and ‘you’re’ with ‘your’ every single time? How come you don’t speak correct English when it is the only language you speak?

I was provoked by his offensive behavior, yet I didn’t say any of these things and stayed courteous throughout his trip. Not that my job was too dear to me, but because I grew up idolizing a man who preached peace, and suggested offering the next cheek if someone hit you on the first. That is how we achieved our independence.

Nevertheless, my heart goes out for Jason who accompanied Tom during his trip. A fine young man, educated, talented, fresh out of college. It was disturbing to witness Tom’s gratuitous harshness directed at Jason. Tom was not a favorite among the offshore employees, but has always been respectful of his own team, the US team that comprises Stacy, Oliver, and… Oh wait… how could I miss to notice that Jason doesn’t share his highly-spoken-of British origin; Jason is an African American. Clearly, the only brown thing Tom likes is his tea and prefers black only on his tie. Though the organization has well placed book of protocols that entail mutual respect and equality among employees, it serves more as an eyewash to impress new joinees. Because depending on someone’s geographic location or ethnicity, Tom keeps playing with these protocols and no one bats an eye.

(Anonymous confession was made to Avantika Debnath. You may share your story by sending a message here. All names are altered.)

Representational pic used from Yahoo database.