Now, I’m not a native of Chennai nor India, but my mother’s Indian, so i maintain that i’m half-indian, if not fully so.

I totally understand and respect Indian culture, and have no qualms about the law of the land. But the last time i was at Amethyst with my girl-friend (now my wife), i had a very bad experience. I popped the question to her (meaning, i proposed marriage to her) at Amethyst, and i selected it out of all places because we both loved our previous times there. Now, imagine how special that moment is in somebody’s life. She agreed, and we were both so happy. Before leaving from there, we were both obviously so caught up in emotion and we were so much in love that i gave her a lingering kiss on the mouth, and obviously she responded too – now at this point, please understand that this happened completely naturally, and both of us come from a culture where expression of love in such a manner is considered completely natural. It would have actually have been totally strange and unnatural if someone had proposed marriage to someone and hadn’t even kissed them after/during it.

This is where the problem entered. Almost immediately, someone (i later found that it was a waiter) came running towards our table, and thrust a placard in our hands, which basically told us that ‘physical intimacy was not admissible’ in that place and that the ‘management strictly warns people of action’ if they did indulge in such intimacy.

What?? So you cant kiss your girlfriend even when you propose to her, even at that point of time when you’re actually asking her to marry you?? I tried explaining to that person that it just happened, and also that i had just asked her to marry me, but he just didnt seem to understand. Then a couple of other waiters also chipped in and were trying to actually make us leave.

We were both feeling so shocked that something like this happened just after the best moment of our lives, that we immediately paid up without a word and left the place. We felt too embarrassed, and actually hurt that this happened. What made us sad was that Amethyst didn’t know how to differentiate between people who come to such places with such intentions and people who are also decent citizens, trying to live normal lives.

Anyway, i feel no need to explain myself to people, but i’m relating this here so that folks here understand that employing ten people who bring you food is just not what service is all about, and also since India prides itself in being a plural society, it’s high time people woke up from their hypocrisies and their false notions of what decency is and what is not. That yardstick is not for one to impose on others, but for people themselves to determine – i’m sure if anyone had seen us there that evening, you would have been happy for us, and not felt that we were violating any laws or behaving in an indecent manner.