riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (04/04/85)
It seems to me that this has been discussed before, but here goes again:
Yes, many motels in this country are owned by Indians, and in some areas the
motel industry is even dominated by Indians. This is not just due to
chance. If you take a closer look you'll find that a disproportionate
number of the Indians running these motels are Gujeratis named Patel, and an
awful lot of them are related by caste if not by blood or marriage. The
Indians of my acquaintance (my fiancee is Gujerati herself) view this as a
natural outgrowth of the caste and extended family system in India, where it
is not at all uncommon for a single large family or caste to pursue a single
occupation, even a 20th-century urban occupation outside the realm of the
traditional caste system.
How this could happen is very simple. Uncle Patel comes to the U.S. and
somehow stumbles into the motel industry, which he finds suits him very
well. It requires only basic business skills plus a willingness to do a lot
of "scut-work", as someone pointed out; it allows him to save money by
combining living expenses with business expenses, since he can live where he
works; it is well-suited to a number of slightly shady tax dodges (like only
declaring a single occupancy per day per room, even though the room may be
rented several times for purposes other than sleeping); and it provides
plenty of work for all of the cousins, nieces and nephews who would like to
join him. Once Nephew Patel has come over and worked at Uncle Patel's place
for a few years, he decides to set himself up with a motel, too. And so it
spreads.
There are a few bad aspects to this, too. It can be awfully lonely being
the only Indians in a small town, and since most towns can't support very
many motels, the Indian families who enter the business are quickly
dispersed all across the country. Even sadder is the distorted view of
American life that the operators of even a nice motel can easily acquire --
motels being frequented not just by happy tourists but by drifters,
adulterous couples, prostitutes and their clients, and the like. (The
multiple booking practices that are so profitable especially suit the latter
clientele.) My fiancee's relatives in the motel industry are especially
bitter about this, since they aren't happy with the environment in which
they are raising their children (but aren't ready to give up their business,
either).
I always thought that "Patel motel" was a joking term used just by my future
in-laws, until I overheard a group of Indians on the Galveston ferry ask one
another, "Do you suppose there's a Patel motel on the other side?"
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sallyssm@ahuta.UUCP (s.modak) (04/05/85)
> It seems to me that this has been discussed before, but here goes again: > > Yes, many motels in this country are owned by Indians, and in some areas the > motel industry is even dominated by Indians. This is not just due to > chance. If you take a closer look you'll find that a disproportionate > number of the Indians running these motels are Gujeratis named Patel, and an > awful lot of them are related by caste if not by blood or marriage. > > I always thought that "Patel motel" was a joking term used just by my future > in-laws, until I overheard a group of Indians on the Galveston ferry ask one > another, "Do you suppose there's a Patel motel on the other side?" No offense to any Patels anywhere, but why call them "Patel motels"? Wouldn't *POTELS* be more concise? S. Modak AT&T
srradia@watmath.UUCP (sanjay Radia) (04/06/85)
In article <1479@ut-sally.UUCP> riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) writes: >Indians of my acquaintance (my fiancee is Gujerati herself) view this as a >natural outgrowth of the caste and extended family system in India, where it >is not at all uncommon for a single large family or caste to pursue a single >occupation, even a 20th-century urban occupation outside the realm of the >traditional caste system. I think this is a little bit far fetched. I will living in east africa and the patels there did not follow a single occupation. Now the same people when they have moved to the US have almost all become motel owners. One of the reasons for this is that the Patels tend to be very helpful to other Patels, even when they are not family. They introduce them to the motel business and help in purchasing motels. -- sanjay UUCP: ...!{ utzoo,decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!watmath!srradia ARPA: srradia%watmath%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNET: srradia%watmath@waterloo.CSNET