Culturally Insensitive Me

I see her everyday. She would water her plants before noon and spend 15 minutes to meditate and pray. One morning as I look out our kitchen window, she was looking up in the east with her eyes closed pouring out a slimy thing from her hands. I wonder what she was up to. I observed her from a distance. I guess she was meditating or maybe praying and I was right. She does it everyday in front of her herbal garden. She is Indian and she is a practicing Hindu.

This kind young woman and her husband have been living in Australia for almost two years now. I usually have a brief chat with her whenever I see her. She would offer to give me a hand with my baby boy whether it be helping me with the pram or just giving my little boy a nurse. I think she is sometimes lonely, so I asked her to come for afternoon tea to have a little chat, but she never did. I was wondering why she never accepted my invitation. I thought maybe she was just shy, so I made a traditional Filipino food and gave it to her, thought she can share it with her husband. She shyly accepted it, said thank you and also apologized that she can't have it because she is vegetarian. "Oh no! you wouldn't be able to try my dish" was my quiet response. Quite embarassed, I apologized and said I would share a vegetarian food next time. She smiled and said I should not worry because her husband can eat the food I gave.

That started our friendship. She would sometimes give us Indian Curry or some Indian food. I would occassionally share with them a cake that I made or some fruits that we have at home. She started to openly share with me her experiences and her adjustments of living in a new culture like Australia. We usually have very interesting conversations as I myself have interesting similar experiences.

Her herbal garden caught my attention one day. Seeing her herbs grow beautifully, I commented about it. Politely she said, if I need some of it I shouldn't hesitate to ask. So one afternoon, I asked her if I can have some basil leaves from her garden. She was silent for a while and gave me a blank face. After a while she said "what will you use it for? Confused, I responded shyly that I am thinking of making a pasta dish and I would be needing some basil. "Are you using meat with it?" She asked politely. I said "yes". There was a moment of silence, and voila! I immediately realized that she is vegetarian so I told her that only if it is alright with her. She said that I can get anything I want from her garden except the basil. Apparently "basil" for them is a sacred plant and you can only use it for vegetarian food. She was so embarrased and very apologetic. I left apologizing badly and told myself that I will always remember to be culturally sensitive. I ended up planting my own basil. Here's a picture of my thriving basil plant.