Work & biz travel has been kicking my butt the past few months so I haven’t been able to uphold my end of the Sepia Mutiny bargain of late. I was however, in Amsterdam last week (on business!) and had a few moments of (sober) time. ABCD dork that I am, it’s always fun to look for the little signs of desi influence…
| Honors for Desi “pride of place” in the US probably goes to Bombay– it ain’t too hard in most good sized cities to find a Bombay Palace, Bombay Bazaar, Bombay Place, etc. In Amsterdam, on the other hand, the Desi city that secures branding is Goa – the apropos name for one of the city’s many famous, euphemistically named, “coffeeshops” |  |
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It’s well nigh impossible for a desi techie to observe the “bicycle rickshaws” peddling tourists up and down the streets & demur that not all technological progress is, uh, monotonic. These poor, exploited Dutch cyclists, if only they could afford a noxious 2 stroke, soot-spewing engine to alleviate their burden. |
Just to nitpick a bit Vinod chettan, Goa is a state. Admittedly one of India’s smallest states but still a state.
Horrible flashback: This is the second time we’ve been scolded for this offense 🙂
Amsterdam is one of my favoritest cities in the world (and, no, not for the reasons that first leap to mind.) I hope you had a great time – and managed to hook yourself up with some rijstoffel (sp?)
been to coffeeshop GOA …don’t remember too much…don’t remember if any desis worked there or not…but I’m sure I liked it…
They don’t really leap to mind… they sort of amble into mind red-eyed and shaggy.
There are loads of desi’s in Amsterdam – desi’s from Surinam, South America, which was a Dutch colony – most of Hollands great black footballers like Ruud Gullit and Edgar Davids are from Surinam and one of them Aaron Vinter – had desi blood I think.
I chatted to a Surinamese girl there – very cool – like the Trinidad and Guyana brothers and sisters.
Once, when I had a few hours between connecting flights at Schipol, I went into Amsterdam and found a cafe in a residential area to have breakfast. I was far from tourists, it seemed like a typically dutch venue.
The owner and the waiter were cousins from Jallandar.
🙂
re: signs of desi influence –
the ‘coffee-shops’ have this curious habit of selling narcotic cigarettes of the substance known as Marijuana.
Among the selection is ‘Manali cream’. Some say of these that they are the finest in the world, proof being that they are manufactured ‘by appointment to HM Queen Elizabeth the Second’
Not that i would know any more than i have heard of the whole subject. 🙂
I cannot remember ever seeing a Sardar in Amsterdam 🙂 Or for that matter, I dont think there are that many ppl who look desi in the dam – relatively ! But having said that, I was amazed to hear some sorta desi music on the radio there. It wasn’t bollywood or the likes, more like ghazals or the sort. This maybe because of the Suriname and friends efect – where these ppl may not exactly look desi.
“..the Desi city that secures branding is Goa..”
Goa is a state , and a state of mind
Interesting post.
I know I’m lame responding to such an old post, but if you consider my handle you’ll realise I just have to. 😉
First, it’s ‘rijsttafel’, not ‘rijstoffel’.
Secondly, no I don’t live in Amsterdam, but I’m still tired of the old cliches of prostitutes and marihuana. Never touched any of those softdrugs, never been to the red light district. The Dutch laws are actually more stringent on cannabis than one would suspect. It is legal to sell marihuana, but not to grow it, unless it’s for personal use. In the last case one can grow up to a maximum of five plants. Ah, the Dutch are probably only second to the Indians in terms of bureaucracy.
As for the desi angle – yes there are a lot of people of Indian descent living here. However these are merely folks who emigrated in the 19th century to Surinam(that’s in South America for those geographically challenged among you). These people in fact aren’t anything like, say, second or third generation Indians. For one, they have none of the restrictive social mores that mark the Indian community. They have no qualms about dating and sex, and the concept of arranged marriage is something completely foreign to them. Also the Surinamis tend to be a lot more open and a lot more friendly towards those who are not of the same ‘ethnicity’. Interracial dating is more common among them than among other ethnic groups. This in contrast to the few Indians here who, if at all they speak any Dutch, tend to be quite stand-offish, refuse to mingle with the Dutch, and criticise the country & people all the time. (There are definitely exceptions though.) On the flip side, most Surinamis tend to be present in the lower strata of society, although they fare significantly better than their Turkish and Moroccan counterparts. They are generally considered to be well-integrated and functional members of Dutch society. A lot of the Surinamis also take an active interest in Indian culture and the Hindu religion,and often are the main initiators behind the construction of Hindu temples and the organisation of cultural activities. (Unlike most of the Indians, who mostly sit around complaining that they are not recognised, but do very little about it.) But as I said, the Surinamis are completely different still from Indians, and most Indians who have been living here for a long time can spot them from miles off.
The Indian community, in comparison, is quite small. It appears actually reasonably big on the surface but actually most of the Indians here are only temporary workers and either proceed to return to India or move on to the USA. My family is one of the few which has decided to stay on permanently. I can’t say we interact much with the Indian community. My sister and I are not particularly fond of our desi peers – I remember distinctly at one point suddenly being kicked out of my group of desi friends because I was too ‘Westernized’. The Dutch(and the Europeans in general actually) come across as too blunt and cold, ranging from reasons such as lack of conversations on public transport, to the sort of jokes that you folks on Sepia Mutiny would have a field day with, judging by your previous articles. Indeed, I have become quite desensitized to jokes of any kind, whether sexual, religious or ethnic, and find some of the quite funny indeed. I have learned not to take them seriously, and besides if one gets one’s knickers in a twist about every little supposedly ‘Orientalist’ turn of phrase then one is going to lead a very lonely life indeed! So you see that life is a little different around here. Maybe it’s the weather. As noted though, the desi folks are few and far between. The Surinami communities in any case are all concentrated around the big cities of Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam. (By contrast, I am up to my chin in cattle.) I just wanted to post this comment, because it seems like you folks are sorely missing in the perspective from the other side of the Channel! 🙂