Last week I told you how a stranger in a shop breached my baby’s comfort zone and then how a friend teased Apra making her want to leave immediately. The biggest such incident however happened when we were in Lucknow, having breakfast in a very good hotel. Let me tell you about it.
Ramona, Apra and I had gone for a long weekend to Lucknow, after quite a long time without any holiday within India. We were staying in a five-star-hotel, a treat for me and my wife, as we both love comfort and also good food. In such a hotel you can be sure that the rooms are clean and also the staff is well trained. Well trained not to pass comments on a couple of mixed origins and supposedly trained enough not to annoy such couple’s children. That assumption was proved to be wrong though when we went into the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast the first morning.
Apra was enjoying her holiday already and while we were showing her the new surroundings, she took her little teddy bear along, showing him the new things in turn. When we entered the restaurant, Apra on my arm, there was a staff member of the hotel welcoming us as usual. She wished us a good morning and of course beamed at Apra with a huge smile. Then she saw the bear and exclaimed in the special voice that people reserve for children: ‘Oh, what a cute little bear you have! Can I have it? I will keep it here with me!’
Even while she was saying these words, she stretched out her hands towards the bear, grabbed it and, you won’t believe it, started pulling on it! We were just as surprised at this action as Apra was. Obviously, Apra clutched her favourite toy tightly and pulled it towards her body. For another few seconds, the woman seemed to pull and try to get the bear out of Apra’s hands before she finally released it.
It was only a matter of maybe a minute or not even that long. After nodding my greeting to the lady, I had started to look for a free table, deciding where we would sit down and had thus not realized the first moment that this woman was really pulling the bear. The moment I realized, I was too shocked to say anything right away. The same for Ramona, who had entered behind us.
The moment she released the bear, we moved on, dumbfounded by how shamelessly this woman had tried, or pretended, to take away a toy from a two-year-old child that was clutching the very same bear tightly to her body! What the hell do you think you are doing there? Stealing from my daughter in front of my eyes?
Again, of course you were not stealing. Of course you wouldn’t have taken it away from her. Had she started crying, you would have been very apologetic. She was just about to cry though, didn’t you see that in her face? You just wanted to play. To tease her a bit.
I don’t think it is funny. Neither did my wife. Neither did my daughter.
The staff training of a five-star-hotel in India obviously does not include the proper behavior with customers’ children! Or maybe she was a trainee. Or, and I think this is the most probable cause, the habit of teasing children is rooted so deeply in the Indian culture that even the training of a five-star-hotel cannot get it out of people. They are just not sensitive to children’s feelings, no matter how sensitive they are to their customers’ wishes.
Keep your fingers away from my daughter’s face and her toys unless she offer them to you from her own wish.
Tomorrow I will tell you about our and Apra’s reaction to this incident.
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