Kamal Ghorui
Gaurav Sabnis, an Indian-origin professor at New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology, shared his experience of visiting the Iguaçu Falls and how embarrassed he was as an Indian there as an Indian group created a ruckus, hollering, jumping the queue. Sabnis recalled that it was a boat safari and to reach the boat, the tourists had to change three vehicles and stand in queues multiple times. There were many Indians but he specified about a group from Delhi “intent on winning the Delhi stereotype bingo”. Other people were getting annoyed by the Delhi group as thet were jumping the line and calling others who were with them to join the line where they found their space by pushing others. There were several cars and the queues were moving very fast and there was no reason for rushing or jumping the line, Sabnis explained. Four people jumped the queue but soon it became eight as they called more people and them it became 15 as they claimed they were traveling together. “Now the other tourists started rolling eyes & getting annoyed. Also the group was so loud and continuously chattering. No concept of lowering voices in public,” Sabnis posted. Sabnis said when he protested and said that if they were traveling together, then they should join the line together instead of jumping the line, they asked him to go ahead of them. He told them that jumping the queue was not the only issue but their behavior was creating a bad impression for Indians. Sabnis said he refused to go ahead of the boisterous group as he was not in a hurry but the entire ruckus that those men were creating was absolutely unnecessary as they were saving 4-5 minutes at best.On the boat ride too, these men started shouting “India! India!” like it was some cricket match, Sabnis said. “The looks and reactions of the non Indians around us were so telling, and with good reason. I felt like writing “I’m not with them” on my T-shirt. They’ll all go away & tell stories of this obnoxious behavior of some Indians in a very polite and soft spoken country,” Sabnis said adding that many Indians in that tour group were polite, soft-spoken who did not jump the lines but they will be forgotten and people will only talk about the loud ones. “And they don’t even realize that loudly going “INDIA! INDIA!” In a shared boat while other people are taking pics & videos of a lifelong memory does India and Indians no good,” the post added.
