Rude Indian People.. Vikas you were right..

This past Memorial Day, my wife and our 8 year old headed over to Santa Cruz Beach for some fun in the Sun and later to let the little one take in some rides. We found a great spot on the beach, near the water but not close enough to get wet. There were two 20-something Indian couples playing with a soccer or volleyball near us. They kicked up a bit of sand but they were downwind so we didn't care. For whatever reason, about 20 minutes after we arrived, they moved to an upwind position of us and began kicking the ball all around our little spot there on the beach, the ball literally sailing directly over us at times, and they bouncing all around us blasting sand everywhere. My wife, never the shy one, asked them to maybe kick the ball elsewhere. They ignored her. I, realizing that an angry black man making such a request can be intimidating and might lead to confrontation, tried to remain quiet. Eventually through a series of "WTF are you doing" looks they appeared to get the message and seemed to settle down. Until they decided to leave. At that point, they began to shake their blankets and towels pretty much directly over us dumping sand in our faces and into our food. At that point I lost and launched a profanity laden "plea" for them to cease and desists. After exchanging a couple of perplexed looks with each other, they did and left. Quickly.
The significance of this encounter was that it was the first time in memory that I had encountered Indian people who were not just the nicest folk in the world. As I reflected on the incident, and how these young Indian folk could have come to behave so.. American, I was reminded of a conversation I had had with my coworker, Vikas, at Sun Microsystems sometime around the summer of 2001. I remember Vikas telling me that he would have to move back home to India before his kids were corrupted by us Americans. At the time I was mildly insulted but hey, it's his kids, he has to do what he felt best. But as I pondered these kids from the beach, it occurred to me that they were probably either born here in the states or raised from a very young age here. They had no accents to speak of and if not for their dark skin could easily have been plain old California white kids. Especially their boorish behavior. Then I harkened back to the Indian brother in Sunnyvale who had basically killed his entire family and himself over a dispute with his wife's brother. Only his wife, who had managed to stumble out the apartment despite being shot multiple times, had survived. So I decided to write this blog entry in honor of Vikas. Vikas, you were right to take your kids back home. While I'm sure not all Indian (or other foreign) kids raised here will be thus influenced by us Americans, it's clear that there are aspects of our society which are rubbing off on our friends who come here from other cultures, which they would just soon didn't. Come to think of it, so would we.


Lest there be any misunderstanding, there is no attempt being made here to hold all Indian people accountable for the idiotic behavior of a few wayward sons and daughters. In my 20 years here in Silicon Valley I have found Indian folk to be simply delightful, with few exceptions. But I am left to wonder, as more and more of them grow up in our midst, how long will that be the case, with them, or with any other immigrant group.