His Indian accent gets him some English money

The Indian accent just doesn't get enough respect in the West. Some people make fun of it, others just don't understand it. A man with a thick Indian accent wouldn't be able to order pizza in America.

Indian man: "I yam vanting a large peeja please."

Waitress: "Picture? We don't have pictures here.'

Man: "No, peeja! I yam vanting peeja!"

Waitress: "Pee jar? Sorry sir, we don't allow that here. You'll have to use the restroom."

The Indian accent is even getting the short end of the stick in India.

LONDON, Nov. 28 An Indian-born British man dismissed from a New Delhi call center for not sounding English enough has won a discrimination lawsuit in England.

Chetankumar Meshram, 27, works for the Talk Talk Direct telecommunications company in Northampton, and last year accepted a two-month transfer to New Delhi to work in the company's call center.

However, just three weeks into the job, he was told his accent "wasn't English enough" and he had to return home, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

"I know I speak with an accent but my job out there was to give technical advice, not to give expertise on how to communicate," said Meshram, who was born in India, and emigrated to England two years ago, the report said. [Link]

I wonder whom he was giving technical advice to. Was it Indians, Britons or Indians pretending to be Britons?

The Bedford Employment Tribunal agreed with his claim he had suffered both direct and indirect discrimination and awarded him $10,000 compensation for hurt feelings and expenses. [Link]

Only ten grand? The man lost his job and had "hurt feelings"! Surely his "hurt feelings" alone are worth 50 grand. And if he's married, his wife probably had "hurt feelings" too. And what about his children? What about his parents? What about his dog? All those "hurt feelings" should add up to a million bucks.

I wonder what he's going to do with the money. I hope he isn't going to use it for "accent-reduction" surgery. Having an Indian accent could be really useful in the future, especially when India starts outsourcing its jobs to the West.