Parking lot manners
Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 9:39PM We have a busy time finding parking prior to the girls swimming lessons. It is a small indoor swim club with lots of students and not enough parking for all the kids coming in and the kids already in the pool. So it is always a struggle to find parking if you come just in time or a few minutes late for the lesson.
One has to wait for 5 minutes so the previous lessons folks pull out and we can park. Knowing all this we usually go 5-10 minutes before lesson starts to find parking.
The kids run out of the pool and into the car or van so they can shower at home.
Last week we came out with the kids. We were 10 feet away from the van when we saw this desi dude park his car and walk away with his kid. He pretty much made sure that 3 cars could not get out! All three cars had wet or semi dry kids waiting to get home.
In spite of our calling our to dude he kept clicking his car keys and walked on with his daughter.
So I tried to pull out, no luck. Then tried to guide another parent out of her spot hoping she would clear the blocking car and in the process give me room to get out. That did not work either. Just then the dude walks back and sees us try to get by.
I told him "aree yaar. why do you do this? we have kids waiting to get home" (he was desi for sure, but did not know what language he spoke.. so the aree yaar was my attempt at being polite)
His response "do you want to stay here longer?"
Me : I don't get it. You parked illegally along the red line. We have been trying to get our cars out and were thinking of calling a towing company. The only correct thing for you to say here is "sorry".. instead you ask me "do you want to stay here longer?"
Dude : I would have said sorry, but the expression on your face made me angry.
Again, no sorry. Apparently my facial expression at being frustrated is more offensive than what he did.
We finally got out of that parking lot a good 15 minutes later.
This whole being wrong and showing attitude thing by some desi dude in the US is new to me. Have seen this in Chennai/ Mumbai , even on my recent trip. Never seen it here. Usually Desi's behave responsibly at least in the areas we have lived in.
This was a new thing for us to experience this.
Hope this doesn't start a trend!That would pretty much even out the difference between living in India and living here.
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double park dude, manners, parking
Reader Comments (4)
Exasperating....
Happens all the time to me in the swim school parking lot - the one I take my kid to is outdoors - and shares the lot with a soccer field - total mayhem each time.
The non-Desis are usually quick - but Desis park in the red zone, dawdle while walking on the road, kids run amok, and I have been yelled at in several languages and even once in sign language (since car windows were up and that lady knew I wouldn't hear her voice) by Desis that I didn't pull in/out at light speed - always wondered how they had the time to yell at me if they were in such a hurry to begin with
I've lived here for over 3 years now and i still cannot get over how people drive here (bay area). And, the worst offenders are across all ethnic groups. Nobody uses the indicator. It is so infuriating. And frankly, very few people in the Cupertino area (mostly Asians and South asians) slow down for pedestrians; And there have been a bunch of times when people saw me pushing the stroller at a pedestrian crossing and STILL did not bother slowing down. I've lived in atleast 3 different cities and never had such experiences. Whats the point in living here? I have asked hubby that question MANY times :-) Ok, rant over, sorry :-)
Call your local parking enforcement right away or video the illegal parking and put in youtube..wait for that guy to face the music..