Hospitality

Mike left earlier this week for Delhi. He plans to travel around India a bit before meeting his family in Nepal for a one month trek. So, I was feeling a little blue- being the only American left here. I came down for lunch the next day and sat down at one of the tables with some of the other guests but then one of the servers starts insisting that I move. I got up and he directed me to this other empty table on the opposite side of the room. I was sitting there thinking how strange this was and eyeing the food on the other tables when they come out with this special lunch they had made just for me! It was my favorite- stuffed peppers, this cheesy hash brown sort of stuff, roasted tomatoes, and banana fritters for dessert. Yum, Yum. The guys in the dining hall speak almost no English, but such a simple act of kindness went such a long way in making me feel less alone.

There are a lot of people coming through here. We get a lot of recruiters visiting the campus hoping to hire soon to be graduating students, people attending conferences or giving guest lectures. There are some students here now to take exams for their distance ed program. I met them yesterday when I sat with them for lunch and they all seemed rather nice. Later in the day yesterday, one of them came into my room. He said he was sorry, that he was mistaken and thought it was his room because he room was next door. I said it was no problem and he asked if we could be friends. I said sure and then he said that is was customary for friends to kiss. I said this was not my custom. He said he was very offended and didn't I like Indians? He kept insisting that I kiss him and I said I really needed to get back to work. So he said to go ahead and he would watch me work. I said that I preferred to work alone so he said ok - we can just sit on the bed and talk. I told him I wanted him to leave so he did - though he came back later and asked if he could take me out to dinner. I think he is maybe a little slow. Anyway - I went to talk to my friend Mallika (I don't know if I have talked about her before - she is a superintendent in the women's dorm.) and asked her if I was right in thinking that this was not at all normal behavior in India. She was horrified and said there was no where in India where this would be acceptable behavior and insisted that I tell the front desk at the hostel. So, I told the guys at the front desk that I didn't think he was a nice man and that he had tried to get me to kiss him and sit on the bed with him. Well, apparently this news has spread all over the place now. This afternoon I was called into a meeting with a couple of the deans and there was this other guy taking minutes of the meeting and they had me tell the whole short story and showed me a photo-line up so I could identify him without having to go through the trauma of seeing him again. At the end they asked if I had anything else to say and I said - Well, he did leave when I asked him to... Anyway, I find it rather sweet how horrified everyone seems to be on my behalf and it is nice to know that so many people care that I am ok. I feel a little bad for having started all this fuss - after all, he is just a creepy jerk - hardly a unique characteristic.