Bloody Racist Indians

We were having dinner at a restaurant not too long ago. Might have been after one of my myriad exams... or before. I can't remember properly either way.

What I DO remember is that a very short while into dinner, even before finishing his glass of red wine, my father let out a somewhat uncharacteristic burst of laughter. From that mischievous glint that he gets in his eyes every now and then, I knew he had a story to tell.

The exact words elude me, obviously, but the gist of it is this.

"There is a man in my office, one of my colleagues. Mr. AssWhite. (I forget his name... and you'll try to excuse me) He used to come and talk to me, and gloat."

"Why?" I asked.

"He was very proud of his family, himself, his wife, and his daughters. They are a Punjabi family."

"And?"

" He's very proud of his family, thinks they are very superior bunch... because they are all very beautiful..."

"(WTF?)" I cut in.

"... and all of them have incredibly white skin and it's so rare to have a family that has managed to maintain this in modern times."

The emotion I was feeling cannot represented by a WTF. I felt disgusted, and more than just a little.

I did not understand why my father would even communicate with a person like that.
Then again, sometimes you can't choose the company you get. At others you stay around to satisfy perverse curiosity.

Even stronger was the desire to know why a man such as this would choose to reveal this kind of blatant racism to a colleague. Many are closet racists, many are not proud of it. Even I might have a slight racist streak (Then again, am I not allowed to have my own standard of beauty? From my current one, the ratio of good looking people from various ethnicities is unequal, skewed even, does that not make me intrinsically racist-?)

In any case. That's not the point. When compared to Mr. AssWhite in terms of the bile that is prejudice, I'm practically as 'pure as the driven snow'.

So back to the main point. Why the hell would a racist show his true colours (heh)?
Did he think my father would appreciate it, because he has fair skin?
Man... talk about being 'skin deep'.

On to the second part of the story.

"So Mr. White has sent his eldest daughter to study abroad, so that she could interact and associate with more white people and return even whiter than she'd left, perfectly ripe for marriage."

Just great. I hope Mr. Ass isn't expecting my father to provide a white groom for daughter 2. (Ok I apologize, I know this thought is baseless, petty and unwarranted- and hopelessly narcissistic. But it was one of the many that cycled through my head and I might as well note it down to remember it.)

"Except the daughter's seems to have gotten married already...
... To a Nigger."

"That's racist, Dad."

"So is the father."

Hm. Then came my slightly delayed snort of derision coupled with a hoarse laugh.

"So has Mr. Asswhite put a sock in the racist trash talk these days?"

"Not exactly. He's disowned his daughter now, cut all contact and the like.."

...Wow... just wow, that is single-handedly the most pathetic thing I've heard for a long time.

And this is probably a senior government officer, probably the product of the upper echelons of India's education system.

I find it funny that this country once supported the fight against apartheid in South Africa, when so many people within it are so deeply entrenched in a system tirelessly dividing society along lines of caste, creed, colour... these bloody racist Indians.