South/Central Asians in Malta

I am fascinated as to why you ask the question. I say that because very unfortunately there are many on these islands who are overtly racist towards many of the groups of people you mention. I have witnessed that so many times. 
That is wrong but many here see others of a different appearance and immediately assume they are illegal immigrants.
In my experience there is a nasty underlying current here beneath the glossy exterior presented; particularly when money is involved.

Morning red

You ask a multi-faceted question.

The short answer: I felt like some good chai from the foothills of the mighty Himalayas.

The long answer: I would have to take your word on people being racist toward the alluded group. I have been here six month and my contact list of Maltese has only continued to grow. Having lived on multiple continents, I can cautiously say that Maltese are a very friendly bunch. As for Central/South Asians, I partly lay the blame to them for being on the receiving end of such treatment, if that is the case. They fail to assimilate, tend to congregate within the community, and do not take the initiative to bring down any perceived barriers; human interaction is breathtaking as it, why not embrace the unknown. Eventually, some of them are no different than a national from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico who has been in San Antonio, Texas, US for more than 20 years and still beginning the conversation with "Se Habla Espanol?" The above is a very long-winded way to say where can I get my damn chai, lol.

I thank you for being so dedicated to this forum. Some of your answers along with ricky's and toon's have been very informative to me during the move, especially when considering how little information is out there for TCNs.

I absolutely relate to your sentiments expressed regarding resident minority groups.
I also agree that there are many exceptions to the attitudes and behaviours to what I have stated.
However, I have witnessed racist behaviour by people in authority and others here and I have reported a couple of incidents but of course received nothing more than the usual corporate bullsh1t response.
I have been shocked as to how several people have started a conversation with me, uninvited, telling me how much they despise many people who are here. One just recently at our bus stop started, again uninvited and by someone I had never previously met, with the opening comment about how much he hated a particular race and how he could never do business with them and they shouldn't be here. Why me? Maybe because although I am mixed race I appear to be white Caucasian British.
I am also lucky as I have lived in, worked in or otherwise visited over 30 countries, including The Maldives, Belize and parts of Africa.

Prejudice is product of fear and ignorance...

Exactly this^

As humans I find our day to day struggles pretty universal.

New Horizonz wrote:

Prejudice is product of fear and ignorance...

Not entirely I would argue.
We all have prejudice and some of it is inherent for survival purposes. It's natural
It's how we manage our prejudice and how we behave that is learned; though some people never recognise their prejudice.

That's not prejudice redmik: that's instinct!
Prejudice is an intellectual (or lack of it) exercise.

"An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts." (Source: a dictionary definition)

I still argue that some prejudice exists in order to maximise our individual chances of survival.
It is inherent. Instinct covers a lot of other things too but includes some prejudice.
We all have preference, we all have prejudice, if we act on those things and particularly from a position of power affecting another unfairly, then that is discrimination.

Hello everyone,

Can we get back on the topic please?

@MaltaAugust2014 > Do you have more questions? Please do not hesitate to post here

Thank you

We are on a topic related to the original question.
In the absence of any other responses this is relevant, especially out here.

I found today just by chance as I was passing a Turkish shop and an Indian shop nearby. They both had different teas. and several of them said "Chai" on the packaging.
I don't know the difference between them. I thought Chai is a Russian word meaning tea, but anyway, do you know these shops? Have you tried them?

Hi New

Chai is a Sanskrit/Hindi/Urdu word referring to tea. It so happens that most warm beverages in the Indian Sub-continent eventually came to be known as chai. So you could be sipping on Oolong Tea and be asked how is your chai. Same for say an herbal concoction of Peppermint & Licorice, and so on. The only exception would be warm milk with turmeric or just good ol' warm milk. Whilst the Turks are more renowned for their Turkish Coffee - which in turn originated in Ethiopia (where brewing it in the morning or for tourists is in fact a ritual) - Turkish Tea is also a popular beverage and is similar to the Moroccon Tea which sees the use of fresh mint in black tea as opposed to the Indian counterpart which utilises milk as creamer instead.

I am not an authority on the subject though. I simply grew up in a household where tea was the cure for every issue.

Thank you man! We must get together, sit and talk about these while sipping one type or another: all new to me and interesting in equal measures.

My main point was to ask if you have seen those shops I mentioned more to the point if they have what you're looking for.

Cheers
Russell

Hello everyone,

It would be great if we could get back to the original topic, which is about meeting south/central Asians in Malta. If you have any other topic that you wish to discuss about, please do not hesitate to create a new thread on the Malta forum.

Thank you,

Shaazia
Expat.com Team

Dear Shaazia, I believe the lack of responses to the original ponder
'With that out of the way, I am curious to find out whether there are people from Central/South Asia (Afghans, Bengalis, Pakistanis, Indians, Maldivians, Nepalese, Sri Lankans) on here.'
is an answer in itself. There is not one answer from anyone of those groups.

It was not about meeting south/central Asians in Malta.

The OP MaltaAugust2014 was also invited, by your colleague to post   Do you have more questions? Please do not hesitate to post here

In the absence of any other responses discussions are relevant, especially out here.

Hello Shaazia,

It wasn't clear what he was asking. He then clarified his real question:

MaltaAugust2014 wrote:

Morning red

You ask a multi-faceted question.

The short answer: I felt like some good chai from the foothills of the mighty Himalayas.....

also:

MaltaAugust2014 wrote:

.....The above is a very long-winded way to say where can I get my damn chai, lol. .....

Ie. He is looking for a source for Indian TEA.

I found a source and was kind to come back to tell him that; he hasn't responded to that.

Is this on-topic or off-topic? Please clarify.

Hello Shazia

I don't see how redmik or New Horizonz ever derailed the original theme of the thread. As a content developer, I am forced to note that in attempting to create a highly-curated browsing experience you are really ending up with a Q&A-styled interaction only. These are forum pages, people discuss, go off-track, add to the original question. It all enriches the discourse, no? 

I will go grab that Monday morning coffee now.

Salaam, any afghan in your list?