*Our tryst with the only racist Sri Lankan!*

Dear Editor,

I’ve only just returned after a fantastic holiday of 10 days in Sri
Lanka. A country where smiles are a generous commodity and where the
hospitality is one of the best I have ever experienced.

Unfortunately, it was one stray incident at The Gallery Café in Colombo
that left me and those I was travelling with shocked and appalled at the
evident and direct racist attack on Indians. We had gone to the The
Gallery Café - Paradise Road (at 2 Alfred House Rd, Colombo 3) on
Tuesday June 27, 2006 afternoon for a nice lunch and to end our super
trip in Sri Lanka as we were leaving later that evening.

A close friend of ours, who is the wife of a senior hotelier in Colombo,
took us there as she thought we’d enjoy the place. The place was trendy
And very contemporary chic. Incidently, the The Gallery Café is the
former
Office of acclaimed architect - Geoffery Bawa.

After being seated and our order taken we slipped back into our
chairs little realising the trauma and ordeal that was to follow.
Our order, rather simple, a Gazpacho soup, Blue Cheese Tart and a
Mushroom Puff Pastry were our preferences from the printed menu. After
20 mins of ordering, the waiter returned to tell me (my order was the
Blue Cheese Tart) that they had run out of the tart. Fair enough. I
pondered and ordered a Ceasars Salad.

After another 30 mins, our friend requested the waiter to get our
food as it was quite a while since we’d placed the order. An
additional 15 minutes later she again requested a reminder for our
order. The waiter babbled something and disappeared. By then,
famished and rather tired of waiting for almost an hour of no service we
requested the waiter to call the manager. The manager came and we
enquired as to the delay on our order.

He mumbled incoherently and then argued that we’d ordered a soup and
That the soup was to be brought later or first etc. Needless to say, we
were
Confused at his defensive and argumentative response. We requested that
if it was going to take that long, he should cancel the order and that
we’d
leave. By now famished and rather irritated at the service rendered we
requested him to call the owner - Mr. Shant Fernando - so that could
offer
feedback on the delay of what would normally be a very simple order. All
the while, expats who’d been pouring in after us seemed to be served
rather promptly.

When the owner came, I addressed him saying “I’m sorry to have to tell
you
That we’ve not had a very good experience here …”. Before I could
finish my sentence he aggresively and in loud stacato replied, “Then I
think you should never ever bother to come back here”!

The four of us were too stunned to respond! However realising that
feedback as wasted on the defensive and overtly aggressive gentlemen I
nodded and we ate the food that appeared miraculously in less than a
minute of the manager having gone to get the owner and after our
requesting him to cancel the order. Mr. Fernando must have been more
irate at not having received a reprimand from us for his outburst, for
he moved to the table right next to us and started screaming about
having had the Maharaja of Udaipur patronising his restaurant and then
rushed to procure photographs for the stunned patrons as proof! We
finished our meal in silence not heeding to his insanity and requested
for the bill. The bill had on a charge for the Blue Cheese Tart that
never came! After pointing that out, we waited to pay the corrected
bill.

Meanwhile, our friend and my mother had already moved towards the exit
and were heading to the ladies. What ensued is perhaps the first
incident of its kind after 60 years of colonial rule! Shant Fernando, a
Sri Lankan gentlemen, with an affected clipped accent thicker than most
Englishmen alive today and apparently still entangled in a time warp of
a colonial hang over, ran towards our friend literally barking out “SO
YOU STILL HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS PLACE?”.

Our friend, firstly not accustomed to such behaviour nor expecting such
an attack was astounded and politely responded that she had never had
nor has a problem with the place but was offering feedback. Before, she
could even complete what she was saying, the
colonial-hung-over-lost-royal screamed that “we have a problem with all
Indian customers … we don’t like Indians for that reason … we don’t
want them here … you’re Indian, aren’t you? AREN’T YOU?”

She was too stunned to respond and stood in horror at the outburst and
his savage demeanour. She explained that yes she was Indian and as the
wife of a hotelier in Colombo had been to The Gallery Café and was never
meted out such service. He enquired which hotel, and on being told the
name, sneered and added … “well then you should know what Indians are
like and aren’t you used to dealing with Indians? You should know what
to expect from
Indians!”. At that stage my father and I had emerged from the recesses
of the restaurant after averting a possible con billing and I told my
friend to let things be and we headed to the car.

He followed us out babbling to noone in particular about how he’s not
there to please everyone. A white expat couple at the entrance were
bewildered then he walked up to them and complained how terrible
Indians were and how he’s not going to please everyone etc.

The outcome of this incident is clear. The angst we face is not at the
pathetic service, Shant Fernando’s uncalled for verbal attacks nor his
lack of empathy at the extremely poor service. Our fury is directed at
his discriminating against all Indians and his apparent insecurity with
them
patronising his restaurant. In a country where there is no dirth of
smiles, Shant Fernando should come to terms with the fact that he no
longer is a colonial servant and move on by dropping the affected chip
on his shoulder and furthermore swallow some humble pie when getting
feedback from paying customers! But then again … maybe that too is not
on the menu at The
Gallery Café! Arrogance, high handedness and a great scoop of racism
surely
are!

To my fellow Indians travelling to Sri Lanka, my travel wisdom dictat
would be - if you plan to have a super vacation in Sri Lanka, avoid The
Gallery Café - it’s the only other nastiness after the terrorists in Sri
Lanka that leaves much to be desired!

P.S: Ironically, this incident occurred 1 day after the largest read
national daily in Sri Lanka declared in it’s headline story that
Indians were the highest spending tourists to Sri Lanka and that their
spending in Sri Lanka outweighed that of all other visiting
nationalities. But I guess that means little to someone who doesn’t want
Indians in his
Restaurant or did he mean ‘his’ country?!)

Regards,
Sunher Thanawalla
A very proud Indian of non-colonial affinity!