VegSeatarian

I am a VegSeatarian. Yes, I eat vegetables and love sea foods specially crab. Though I like fish very much I eat only particular varieties like anchovies, seer fish ,pom fret and sankara (red snapper). My hometown is not a port town so we don't get fresh fish . We rarely get pom fret. We can get "almost fresh crab"  since they had good shelf  life unlike fish. My paternal grandmother made crab dishes and she taught my elder sister to clean and cook crab . So , my sister became the official crab chef  in my house . My mother never knew to clean or cook crab. Now during my visits to India she makes crab and I am not sure when she learnt it.

During my college /working days I used to travel from chennai to my hometown almost every weekend.  I learnt the art of travel conversation during those days.  I never liked bus travel till KPN buses came into business. I met lot of interesting people during my train journeys.  People wanted to know everything about you during those short 8 hours journey.

I always had atleast one brahmin co passenger travelling  with me to my hometown from chennai.  Just after 10 minutes of conversation with me , their usual question would be " Are from this Sri.........?  which implicitly means Are you Iyer or Iyengar ? Thanks to the famous temple, the residents of Sri......... locality are predominantly Iyengars and Iyers.

Not sure if my fair skin or my knowledge in carnatic music made them to think I should be from this particular caste .  Whenever I was asked this question I resist giving this answer " If crab eating people are Iyers then I am an Iyer too : ) ". Being  young and naive and brought up in a family where we don't make fun of  elders I bite my tongue and say " I am not from "sri..." and I am not a Brahmin.

Later on when the same question was asked by my colleagues of my  age , I would tell them my famous answer" If crab eating people are brahmins , hee hee I am a brahmin too".  After an initial shock, they would get the joke and burst into laughter.

I no longer get this question when I travel alone. Thanks to my screwed up hormones my skin has become brown.

I no longer get this question when I travel with my family . Thanks to tall , broad and almost dark skinned husband . His accent and belly speaks for us ; ).