Unusual Friends - Fast Food Joints

Continuing the Unusual Friends series with the stories of workers in fast food places.

Recently when I was passing through the old part of our town, a young man walking past me said 'Sat Sri Akal, Sardar Ji'. This is the Sikh's greeting as in Hello, and usually comes from a person who knows our culture quite well. First I returned the greeting and then stopped and inquired how it was that someone here in the north of Spain knew it. 

It turned out that the man was a worker from the only Kebab shop in Laredo. He originated from Pakistan, and as many of you will know, we (Sikhs and Muslims) shared that part of the world before it was divided in 1947. Even now people from that part of Pakistan will know the Sikhs' language known as Gurmukhi or Punjabi.

The man went on to invite me to some snacks or a Kabab at his establishment, an invitation that I have yet to accept. 

Another man who runs the popular Piculin in the Calle de Medio, which does a roaring trade with the young crowd specially late in the night, knows all of us because our boys (and now their boys) love the hot sandwiches that they dish out late into the night.

And from the Laredo establishments I would like to thank the owner of La Cabaña, who very generously sponsored one of my art works a few years ago when I happened to ask him on the off chance, and specially since he had no knowledge of the kind of art he was sponsoring, with its complex mathematics and Chaos theories.

Arvinder Bawa
5S
50cms x 40cms
Imagen Digital sobre papel
Patrocinado por La Cabaña


It was a new concept for Laredo, and to my knowledge it has never been tried before or since. I was invited by the Ruas gallery to exhibit some of my Fractal images. Only trouble was that they were on my computer, and to exhibit I needed to invest a large sum of money to have them printed on good paper with fine inks.

So I hit upon a plan that each work would have a sponsor. They would give me enough money to print the work and in return I would give them acknowledgement in the label that went with each work. I would also give them a specially printed mini version of the work. Since this came as a shock to most people they agreed before they had had enough time to think. For me this was an excellent alternative and it involved the local population in the venture.

I must say that in all my previous incarnations, or places where I have lived, I have never had such popularity among this set of people, and I consider myself fortunate.