Do I look funny?
We reached the Amsterdam Centraal Station. Got out of the door.
“Isn’t Amsterdam supposed to be pretty crowded? Beats me...”
Outside the door was IJ.
“Damn. We took the back entrance of the station. Nice way to begin the trip”
We re-entered the railway station and started walking towards the front entrance. This dude comes to me.
Dude: “Bangladeshi?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “I told to shave off the beard” *
Me: “No”
Dude: “Srilankan?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “This one is for your dark skin” *
Me: “No”
Dude: “Pakistani?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Beard again. Are you going to hear him list all the South East Asian countries?” *
Me: “No. Indian”
The dude then said in heavily accented Hindi, “I just got released from the prison. I don’t have enough money. Give me some”.
Well, that is what I understood with my scarce Hindi vocabulary.
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Wow! How the hell do you manage to attract these sort of people? Four more people are with you and the dude comes straight to you...” *
Me: “Sorry, I don’t carry money. I use card”
Dude: “An ATM is just around the corner”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Now, that is called perseverance” *
Me: “Hmmm... I am in a hurry. I need to go”
I walked away without looking at him. I still don’t understand whether that prison thingy was to gain some sympathy or to threaten me.
At the tram stop in front of Centraal Station, we approached a group of ticket-checkers to find out how to go to Van Gogh Museum. A TC who was eager to practise his English gave us the details about the tram that would take us to the museum. Towards the end:
TC: “Two Euros per question. That makes six Euros”
We were like “WHAT???”.
Me: “I heard that the service is free on Sundays...”
TC: “Haha... That is a good one. I was just joking”
We were watching Van Gogh’s paintings in his museum. I was trying hard to find out why Van Gogh was extremely popular. A security guy comes to me.
Security guy [with an impish smile]: “Sir, you are not allowed to take more than two pictures”
Me [confused]: “First of all, I thought that taking pictures is totally banned inside the museum. Second of all, I didn’t take any picture”
Security guy [with a broad smile]: “I know, Sir. I was just joking”
Friends tell me that I look like a thug. If it is true that “you look the way you feel”, I have every reason to believe that I look stupid. But, do I look funny? Why would everyone want to joke with me?
Friend bought a replica of Almond Blossom for Eight Euros.
Me: “I guess you are really interested in paintings”
Friend: “Well, not really. When I go back, if my wife asks for account for the 10 Euros I have spent on the Entrance Ticket, I will show this to prove that I have been to Van Gogh Museum. And by the way, I love the container box they give with the copies of paintings”
I must admit that the triangular box, of the shape of elongated prism, was really cute.
“Isn’t Amsterdam supposed to be pretty crowded? Beats me...”
Outside the door was IJ.
“Damn. We took the back entrance of the station. Nice way to begin the trip”
We re-entered the railway station and started walking towards the front entrance. This dude comes to me.
Dude: “Bangladeshi?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “I told to shave off the beard” *
Me: “No”
Dude: “Srilankan?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “This one is for your dark skin” *
Me: “No”
Dude: “Pakistani?”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Beard again. Are you going to hear him list all the South East Asian countries?” *
Me: “No. Indian”
The dude then said in heavily accented Hindi, “I just got released from the prison. I don’t have enough money. Give me some”.
Well, that is what I understood with my scarce Hindi vocabulary.
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Wow! How the hell do you manage to attract these sort of people? Four more people are with you and the dude comes straight to you...” *
Me: “Sorry, I don’t carry money. I use card”
Dude: “An ATM is just around the corner”
* Voice-inside-my-head: “Now, that is called perseverance” *
Me: “Hmmm... I am in a hurry. I need to go”
I walked away without looking at him. I still don’t understand whether that prison thingy was to gain some sympathy or to threaten me.
At the tram stop in front of Centraal Station, we approached a group of ticket-checkers to find out how to go to Van Gogh Museum. A TC who was eager to practise his English gave us the details about the tram that would take us to the museum. Towards the end:
TC: “Two Euros per question. That makes six Euros”
We were like “WHAT???”.
Me: “I heard that the service is free on Sundays...”
TC: “Haha... That is a good one. I was just joking”
We were watching Van Gogh’s paintings in his museum. I was trying hard to find out why Van Gogh was extremely popular. A security guy comes to me.
Security guy [with an impish smile]: “Sir, you are not allowed to take more than two pictures”
Me [confused]: “First of all, I thought that taking pictures is totally banned inside the museum. Second of all, I didn’t take any picture”
Security guy [with a broad smile]: “I know, Sir. I was just joking”
Friends tell me that I look like a thug. If it is true that “you look the way you feel”, I have every reason to believe that I look stupid. But, do I look funny? Why would everyone want to joke with me?
Friend bought a replica of Almond Blossom for Eight Euros.
Me: “I guess you are really interested in paintings”
Friend: “Well, not really. When I go back, if my wife asks for account for the 10 Euros I have spent on the Entrance Ticket, I will show this to prove that I have been to Van Gogh Museum. And by the way, I love the container box they give with the copies of paintings”
I must admit that the triangular box, of the shape of elongated prism, was really cute.
posted by Inder | 4:30 AM
13 Comments:
Hehe. Funny..
Did you know that you can only ppost one blog a month ;)
now even people who have never seen me want to joke with me. oh my holy god in the heaven...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
:)
oh my...i thought u were a girl all this time
ha ha ha..i really dont know how to react..men with beard do look like that ;)
i thought your terrace was empty ;)
anyways..i pity you inder..what do you do in amsterdam btw? where in india are you from? these are genuine questions though..
chitra,
:)
parvathi,
girl??!!
my mom tells a story. when i was a kid, she made me wear a frock of our neighbor's kid and took me to a photo studio to take my picture. at the studio i was crying buckets. the photographer said, "good girls don't cry".
that photographer was the first to mistake me for a girl. you are the second :)
kavya,
thank you ji :D
it was a sunday trip to amsterdam. we went on boat tour along the canals, went to van gogh museum... and came back :)
What is with the dutch and the sense of humour - is this what is called sutch humor?
Check this out:
http://home.quicknet.nl/mw/prive/hooguit/Dutch/PepHumour.htm
usha,
haha... the dutch are like the rest of us. their sense of humour is as good as and as bad as the others. the site is, without any doubt, by some dutch hating club.
the dutch tvs do show a lot of american sitcomes. well, we can't expect a country of the size of less than a third of tamil nadu to make all its serials, sitcomes and movies...
so we know why u grow a beard to never be mistaken as a gal - but then it concludes ure not indian too ;p hehehhe rotfl
visithra,
:)
I still don’t understand whether that prison thingy was to gain some sympathy or to threaten me.
ROTFL!! I pity the poor guy! :P
basanti,
you pity him!? he almost threatened and robbed me and you pity him? i am sure the doom's day is right around the corner :P :P :P
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