Undergraduate / Grandma: a situation where you had to work or closely associate with someone [6]

Describe a situation where you had to work or closely associate with someone from a culture very different from your own. What challenges did you face and how did you resolve them?

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It had just been five months of me falling in love with Tamil food that I got an opportunity to make myself fall in love more. Tired with my regular praises for our hostel's, what my friend, Chalukya termed as "horrible food" he offered me an opportunity to experience "real Tamil food". Not before long, I had permission granted from my Principal and was ready to spend my one-week long holiday in Madurai instead of studying for my Semester exam -- just two weeks away. We were to spend that one week in Chalukya's Grandma's place. Of how much ever I had heard from him about his grandma's cooking, I now perceived his grandma to be "a specialist" in South Indian traditional food.

We left school on a Friday evening and after a 12-hour long hectic train journey, we finally arrived to his Grandma's place at six in the morning. On the train, for the first time I learnt something else except about his Grandma's cooking, that she understands only Tamil. This would not have been a big problem if I knew even basic Tamil. Of my five months stay in Coimbatore, I had learnt hardly any Tamil. After learning few words in Tamil from my friend, we both agreed that it would be enough to survive one week in his Grandma's place.

When I first saw his grandma, short, skinny wearing dull maroon sari, I did not think she was the person my friend was talking about. I said "Vannakam" in crisp Tanglish (Tamil with English) accent. Her Grandma replied loudly in some language that I did not know was Tamil until my friend told me so. Being used to quiet way of speaking in Nepal, I thought she was shouting at me (for a moment I even thought she read my mind of what I thought about her). However, later it did not turn out be so; it was just the way of speaking of local Tamilians. If this introduction was not horrible enough, my friend later told me that because of my soft and slow manner of speaking, his Grandma thought I was secretive and lax.

After being freshened up, it was time for breakfast. His Grandma served four idlies on my plate with some sizzling sambar. I could not wait to eat the "real idlies" (WHO consider's idli to be best breakfast in the world). It was not long before I finished all four puffy, delicious idlies. Her grandma asked something loudly, which I thought she was scolding me again for eating so fast. However, my friend's translation indicated that it meant if I wanted more. Hungry, I nodded instantly. It was not long before we eliminated the use of translator. More sambar meant pointing to whatever little sambar was left and more idli was automatically understood if sambar was left however if there was no idli left to eat with. Using this new technique of communication, I finally managed to fill my stomach and she found someone who fell in love with her cooking.

Days started flying by. My friend would go out to learn Java; I would go to the kitchen to help his Grandma prepare stuffs for the next meal. While helping her, not only did I learn more about the ancient Tamil food, but also about the ancient way of communication that existed millions of years ago. I am sure from her point of view I would be like a cave man, moving my hands around infuriatingly with some weird noises.

However, it was not long before we evolved. After couple of hours of interacting, we began understanding those "weird noises". I began understanding some Tamil words and most probably, she would have learnt some English as well, in the process. We now worked efficiently and merrily. And at the end of the day, we could not have been happier with our efforts. I would get to enjoy the food, and she would get to enjoy watching me enjoy the food.

Finally, like all wonderful experiences, this also came to an end. The week zoomed by and it was time for me to head back to school and enjoy what Chalukya and me now both term as "horrible food".

I realized that there could be no language barrier between people. The only barrier that lies is our tendency to prejudge people without knowing them in-depth. I thought my friend's Grandma to be arrogant and rude with her loud voice, but later she turned out to be as lovely as her food. She thought I was secretive and lazy with my soft and slow manner of speaking. I do not think she now feels my soft speaking as secretive and neither do I think she now thinks I am last and lax, with all the cooking and other household chores I helped her with, she better not!

As we left, "our" Grandma bid us farewell with "Buy Buy". This confirmed that she did learn some English after all, though while on my way back, I thought next time I should work on the pronunciation.

Thank You