Nativeté

Seeing as it has been a while since I've been in India, I've come to expect certain things. Relatives talk slowly to me in Tamil and slowly bob their heads up and down, because they assume I can't understand. No one allows me to go alone anywhere in an auto, because "Chennai is different than the US" (also I might be molested by burly Ashok Leyland truck drivers*). I don't mind putting up with all this, its amusing. But when I go to a restaurant and order a South India Thali, and my aunt points at a dish and says, "This is a dahl.", I go slightly more insane.

Sanju

*I do not wish to denigrate Ashok Leyland truck drivers. Therefore, I would like to point out that drivers from other truck companies are equally likely to molest me, assuming burliness remains constant throughout.