Water, No Ice
Indians are known to waiters in restaurants as the “Water, No Ice” people. Most Indians that I know don’t like to order a drink at lunch since the water is free. And no one likes their water with ice cubes in it. Call it racial profiling, if you like, but the Indian position on how they like their water makes sense to me. Given that our ancestral state in the African savannah did not involve any water with ice cubes in restaurants, I suspect that our genes did not prepare us for this daily assault from ice and ice cold water.
On March 1, my wife, Vidya Pradhan and her friend Rohini Mohan started an “online magazine” for Bay Area Indians. It’s called Water, No Ice. It is full of original content – well written articles on – Entertainment, People, Business, Travel, Non-profits and more. The focus is on the Bay Area Indian and so there are many interviews with Indians here. But the themes will be interesting to all NRIs as well as the global Indian.
Vidya has been writing for a while including a children’s book. She brings her love of good writing (inherited no doubt from her writer mother Geeta Padmanabhan) to WNI. Beyond their passion for writing, Rohini and Vidya are excited about the concept of a classy, local, community web-site.
Take a look. You’ll enjoy it.
March 8th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Cool!!
March 8th, 2007 at 9:20 am
“Water, No ice”, “Hamburger, No meat” .. am sure, there are a lot more.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Thanks, Basab. Hey folks, is anyone anywhere giving out Best Son-in-Law Awards? I know a very deserving candidate.
RC Nair, “Cool!”, wow, what a response! Very apt,man!
March 8th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
The plight of Indian vegetarians in US restaurants often causes a lot of mirth around. Being a ‘pure vegetarian’, I have often directed waiters to provide food with ‘no meat’, ‘no fish’, ‘no eggs’, ‘no mushrooms’ etc. Some of my friends on such occasions have added for good measure ‘no taste’.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:43 am
The photo “glass of water” makes this a good post! Nice click!
March 10th, 2007 at 9:26 am
WAAter please, this post is not funny. I remember the years of Self-consciousness :(. Is that the way to lead a life? Being in a group of desis is better,You yap and yap and dont get time to reflect. Ordering a drink makes splitting the bill difficult.
Should I be poli..correct and not say about emigres first gen and later who both have a problem communicating; one a oxford desi and the other a not yet homogenised mexican.
The other faux pas is going and sitting at whichever seat suits me in the restaurant.
Some funny tit bits:
- My friend had a tip calculating software on his cell-phone
- Some waiters think all desis are dot com millionaires and want to talk about their startup circa 2003 @ Uncle Julios Dallas
March 10th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Interesting!Hamburger without meat?? Makes me feel nostalgic!
I remember,had to be contented with two desi equivalent of ‘buns’ being a vegetarian!
March 10th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Intersting…..
While American fast food lunches are generally cold and top of it you have chilled pop with ice as you have pointed out… I could not fathom why inspite of living in such cold places, people are used to having cold lunches……while Indians living in hot country love to eat hot food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got one of answers that you love to eat hot food in hot regions as it helps you cool down as you perspire more!!!!
March 11th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I think plenty of Americans, other westerners as well as others, who see the futility of ordering (and paying for) supposedly cleaner bottled water, only to be contaminated with ice from sources not necessarily known for the traceability of the water used, wisely ask for water without ice.
I think what the waiters gawk at is not water-no-ice but tap water in general, as they make no money on it. In a culture, where tips are a % of the bill and water makes no contribution to that bill, naturally this is to be frowned upon.
Much data proves that in Europe, tap water is cleaner than spring water, not to mention more ‘green’ (no reference to algae, just the materials and energy used in bottling, transporting and then disposing/ recycling).
I also ask for fruit juices without ice, which usually means twice as much juice.
But the best gag on ’spec-ed out’ food orders that are words spoken by a friend on his first visit to a frou-frou restaurant in Paris: ‘I would like steak tartare, well done please!’.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Siddharth, thanks for the reminder. The photo is someone else’s, under Creative Commons. Here’s the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/malias/45580483/
Anshuman and Shefaly, as I understand it, the reason for warm country- hot food paradox as well as rare vs well done food is that in tropical countries like India, food deterirorates much faster. Cooking therefore was necessary. This also explains why spices were necessary - to preserve the food longer.
Shefaly, we have also gone back and forth between bottled water and tap water. Currently, we are on bottled water that is cleaned through reverse osmosis. We gave a thumbs down to spring water, at least for now. But we are fickle, when it comes to the way we like our water.
March 12th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Although your article make sense most of the times its not true always. I mean not all the indians who order water without ice are INDIANS (your way). I do sometime order water. Its not about the money .. I already would have had enough coke that day and I dont wanna drink another one. My wife is an american and she orders water most of the times ..she is kinda strict about her diet. Do you call her indian ?? You dont have right to generalize people based on their habits.
The true american way of life is “live as you like”. It seems you still didnt get it ( since you are writing blogs on others !)
March 15th, 2007 at 11:31 am
And deviating from the focus, let me state the Vidya’s book is perhaps my six year old daughter’s favourite bedtime reading.I was doing a calculation yesterday, I must have read it aloud almost eighty to ninety times so far in last six months. Am quite prepared to take a quiz on the ‘The Milkman’s Cow’ actually! Geetaji, that was such an apt gift for Tanya.Yeh-Dil-Maange-More.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:02 am
i am not Indian but i don’t like ice in water either. my mother taught me at a fairly young age that cold water is like a shock to the system and therefore, no good. now, i cannot drink cold water and don’t like it any way.
i hope more people will get water, no ice. it saves a lot of space in the freezer to not make ice. LOL
April 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
From a server’s point of view, we are not trying to stereotype people who order water with no ice, we just want to know if there is any significance to it. alas, the answer to the question is not as glamorous as i thought. But i must assure you that I wouldn’t assume that because you are Indian that you don’t want ice in your glass