Monday, August 2, 2010

Pleasant Surprise in Zurich

While walking back from the Google office in Zurich, I found this pizza place near my hotel and since it was getting late, I decided to pick up a pizza.
There were 2 brown men chatting in the lobby. They looked Indian.
Anand: "Hello, Can I have a thin crust with jalapeno and bell pepper toppings?"
Man A: "Eingusdehen.. veejus" (or something like that)
Man B (trying to clarify him), spewing more Swiss German at me.
Anand: Pizza topping hai? moTaa mirchi hai naa? jalapeno?
They stare at me like I am nuts. Hmm. If Hindi also does not work, I start some hand signals.
Other than "pizza", they do not get anything. no "topping", no "jalapeno", no "bell pepper", no "very little cheese".. They are a little annoyed and throw more German at me.
I am almost ready to give up..
..and hear one voice inside call out to someone - "inga vaanga"
and I smile.. "neenga thamizhangalaa?"
they also smile..
"aamaanga.. thamizh theriyumaa?"
:)
Srilankan refugees from 22 yrs ago!
After that, it was very easy.. and I just finished this really really awesome pizza!

Many Srilankans have settled here since 20-30 yrs it seems.
They said most are poor and have small shops. Their children are studying well, and speak thamizh at home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_diaspora indicates that there are ~50K Tamilians in Switzerland now.

2 comments:

  1. inga vaanga = Come here
    neenga thamizhangalaa = Are you Tamilians
    aamaanga.. thamizh theriyumaa = Yes. Do you know Tamil?

    ReplyDelete