After a disturbing silence even from my side on my blogs, I feel like writing again. Big YAY. Finally some inspiration!
Recently I started a new little "stereotype" for coffee lovers in my current city, Stuttgart called "Coffee in Stuttgart". The stint took almost a year to start but I would say it's picked up now and it's given me a chance to meet some very fascinating people over a cup of coffee.
We have some very interesting conversations. One of them today was about the typical stereo-types in every country and sometimes even within countries. A coffee meeting with people from 7 different nationalities ranging from Indians, Polish, Russian, German, Portuguese, Greeks and Chilean gives you a chance to look at stereo-typing from a whole new perspective. Being an Indian, I am almost always asked about the great Bollywood industry in our country. It's almost always so that people from other nationalities expect you to break in to a dance and song sequence followed by some drama. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for me, this is met with great disappointment. Through my coffee group, I also found out that we weren't the only ones being mercilessly type-casted. Apparently there is a famous Russian story that follows, whenever a Russian is asked about how much Vodka he can drink, he is almost always going to tell you the story about his pet bear. Yes, the story of the pet bear is to tell you in more than one ways to shut-the-f**k-up. I wonder why we Indians haven't made up one of these stories yet! The Germans are always the worst hit I guess because of their great dictator and their love for beer. But as it turns out not every German will love their beer, some just prefer wine or vodka. They don't consider "The October fest" to be the "Rio de Janeiro" carnival as perceived by the rest of the world( Oh I think I did another stereo-type!). For our Chilean friends, the story is quite different, almost everyone mistakes them as Mexicans and assumes that they have some connections from that side of the world! So I guess to cut a long story short, I am not the only one in the world being stereo-types after all!! (What a BIG surprise there!)
As the conversations drifted to experiences with different communities, one thing that came out clearly was that everyone on the table was out there to break out of their communities to find only a new community : Coffee!
And although the whole point here was going to be about breaking a stereo-type, I think I've just created one here "Coffee lovers on a different high"!
Cheers to coffee then :)
Recently I started a new little "stereotype" for coffee lovers in my current city, Stuttgart called "Coffee in Stuttgart". The stint took almost a year to start but I would say it's picked up now and it's given me a chance to meet some very fascinating people over a cup of coffee.
We have some very interesting conversations. One of them today was about the typical stereo-types in every country and sometimes even within countries. A coffee meeting with people from 7 different nationalities ranging from Indians, Polish, Russian, German, Portuguese, Greeks and Chilean gives you a chance to look at stereo-typing from a whole new perspective. Being an Indian, I am almost always asked about the great Bollywood industry in our country. It's almost always so that people from other nationalities expect you to break in to a dance and song sequence followed by some drama. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for me, this is met with great disappointment. Through my coffee group, I also found out that we weren't the only ones being mercilessly type-casted. Apparently there is a famous Russian story that follows, whenever a Russian is asked about how much Vodka he can drink, he is almost always going to tell you the story about his pet bear. Yes, the story of the pet bear is to tell you in more than one ways to shut-the-f**k-up. I wonder why we Indians haven't made up one of these stories yet! The Germans are always the worst hit I guess because of their great dictator and their love for beer. But as it turns out not every German will love their beer, some just prefer wine or vodka. They don't consider "The October fest" to be the "Rio de Janeiro" carnival as perceived by the rest of the world( Oh I think I did another stereo-type!). For our Chilean friends, the story is quite different, almost everyone mistakes them as Mexicans and assumes that they have some connections from that side of the world! So I guess to cut a long story short, I am not the only one in the world being stereo-types after all!! (What a BIG surprise there!)
As the conversations drifted to experiences with different communities, one thing that came out clearly was that everyone on the table was out there to break out of their communities to find only a new community : Coffee!
And although the whole point here was going to be about breaking a stereo-type, I think I've just created one here "Coffee lovers on a different high"!
Cheers to coffee then :)
