Two nights ago, we were enjoying another lovely meal at our local restaurant, around the corner from our hotel—they serve the BEST paneer butter masala and excellent roti and naan! We were just finsihing up, when a French man around 60 years old came in screaming and pushing himself into the waiter's face...we couldn't make much out because his english was very poor, but we later realized he was saying 'where is my girl?' before switching to French and beratting the poor waiter...when the waiter said 'I don't know' the french man ripped the menu out of his hands, threw it on the ground, smashed his hands on the table, yelled in french again, then grabbed the waiter and threw him across the room—the waiter smashed into the door but with the french man yelling 'find her' he quickly ran off down the street...We were very confused about what was going on...it looked as if this man was having a psychotic break—he was infuriated, he was irrational—when the waiter returned with no results, the french man picked up two glasses, smashed one on the ground and held the other up threateningly...at this point I got up and grabbed his arm and told him 'don't do this...this restaurant cannot afford to buy new glasses' at which point he held the glass at me and yelled at me in french...we eventually talked to some friendly and helpful Indians beside us that were able to translate what was happening...apparently this man's 17 year old daughter had struck up a friendship with one of the waiters at this restaurant and this night, she had gone off with him and the father could not find her—I began to understand how he was feeling—his daughter was lost in a strange land in which he could not communicate to find her (he spoke VERY limited english and the waiters and owners had broken english at best...) but still, his behaviour was unacceptable...finally, we convinced him—if you are really worried, go tell the police because no one here knows where your daughter is...Well the police take crimes against foreigners very seriously and soon there were a half dozen cops outside the restaurant, they chatted with the man before coming in—4 of them went into the kitchen while two stood outside gaurding the curtain over the doorway and all we could hear were loud words in Ladakhi and the sound of sticks on flesh—they were beating information out of people who had no information to give...The nice Indian man tried to tell the police that this French man had abused two waiters, borken a glass, a menu and a triplicate bill pad and disrupted this business causing lost revenue over the dinner rush but the police did not care—if a foreigner complains then it supercedes all else—the sad truth of 'justice' in third world countries, especially those reliant on tourism dollars...about 10 minutes after the police arrived the missing daughter returned with the waiter—he had been showing her around town, exactly what we tried to tell the french man while he was going beserk...the man and his wife tried to hug the daughter but when she realized what was going on she pushed them away, crying, and grabbing on to the waiter to protect him from the police—the parents eventually grabbed her and dragged her back to their hotel and the man was put into the back of the police car and taken away...what justice...this waiter, who is here from Darjeeling (on the other side of the country) to work during the busy tourism season, is taken to jail, probably beaten, possibly jailed and certainly fired from his job—the sole reason he came to this place—simply for taking a willing foriegner around town and being on the wrong side of her father's fury which quickly morphed, via the colour of his skin, to being on the wrong side of the law...
