The piping hot Thai food was uplifting, after a long, tiring day. The meetings had gone late into the evening and we were both completely exhausted. We ate mostly in silence, mindful of the fact that it was close to end of business hours and we had to make haste.
As we queued up at the counter to pay for dinner, my friend got a text from the cab driver saying that he would be 20 minutes late. Our briefly uplifted spirits sank again. We settled up, bid the owner good night, and stepped out into the biting cold. We regretted it instantly and shuffled back into the restaurant.
The owner was closing up. After closing the counter and turning most of the lights off, he turned his attention to us.
“India?”
“Yes! We are from India? Where are you from?”, my friend replied in English.
He stared at us, visibly confused.
My friend thought for a moment. “China?”
“Ohh!", he shook his head and said "Vietnam”.
“Ah”
Silence for five minutes. ”You computer?”
“Yes, we computer”, I replied with a smile. Software engineers obviously stood out in this quiet German village.
“Good good”, he said with a thumbs-up and a smile.
Another bout of silence.
Suddenly he spoke up.
“India. Computer. [taps on temple] .. Goooood!” (accompanied by a thumbs-up and a wide grin)
We smiled politely.
“Computer [shows cash sign with his fingers] gooooood!” (again the thumbs-up and grin)
My friend replied, “India.. [cash sign] .. Not gooood!” (thumbs-down and sad smile)
Long silence. He seemed to be thinking hard.
He asked something in German. All we could do was stare back since neither of us spoke German. He looked around his counter and found a piece of paper.
He scribbled “€ 8,000-10,000 / month”
My friend wrote back, “€ 1,500 / month”
“Noooooo… ” he shook his head, “nooo!". Clearly that's not what he had heard about the software industry.
My friends replied, “India.. [cash sign] .. Not good!” [thumbs-down and sad smile]
“Ohhhhh..”, he replied with a sympathetic smile.
We just stared at each other with polite smiles, for a while.
“Germany.. baaaaaad!”, he suddenly chimed in with his thumbs turned down and a sad smile. He then held his downturned hand at knee-level.
“America.. gooooood!”, hand at chest-level.
“Canada.. gooooood!”, hand at head-level.
“Green Card… gooooooooooooood!”, followed by two thumbs up and a huge smile.
We smiled politely.
“Germany.. baaaaaad!”, he repeated with a sad smile and a thumbs-down. Then, he scribbled 1990 on the paper. “Germany.. goooood!” (accompanied by a thumbs-up). He scribbled 1995 on the paper. “Germany.. baaaaaad!” (again, followed by a thumbs-down and sad smile).
We nodded sympathetically.
“Ehe?”, my friend asked after looking up "marriage" in the german dictionary app.
“Jaaaaa.. jaaaa.”, he nodded, showed us his ring and gestured to the counter.
“Oh! That was your wife?”, which he seemed to understand, since he nodded.
Then he dives back behind the counter, and comes up with the picture of a kid.
“Oh, that’s your kid? Cute.”
He smiled and puts it back behind the counter.
We smiled and waited in silence.
The cab driver came shortly after and we wasted no time jumping in. We waved to the owner from the cab as it sped off, and he waved back at smiling.
“Green card, gooooooood!!!”