Write down rules, specify how to sit and wear clothes: Shradha Sharma hits back at Taj Hotels

New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS) Taj Hotels must write down rules, specify how to sit and wear clothes, said YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma on Thursday, after being reprimanded for sitting in “regular padmasana style” at the five-star hotel's fine dining restaurant House of Ming in the national capital.

Speaking to IANS, Sharma said that she "still can't comprehend what was wrong” with her choice of clothes, footwear, and the way she was sitting.

“This is like a general question in terms of how do we define etiquette and manners, and if it was, if you have rules and regulations, which I don't think anyone was breaking, then you write it down, specify that you have to sit like this, you have to wear clothes like this,” Sharma said.

She pointed out that “people don't get questioned for being offensive, being loud, wearing”, but she was insulted while being properly dressed and wearing proper footwear.

For the unversed, Sharma, who went to the Taj’s fine dining House of Ming to have dinner along with her sister during Diwali, was humiliated by the manager and asked to sit properly as other guests raised objections to her sitting cross-legged on the chair.

The manager also insulted her for the choice of clothes -- “traditional salwar kameez” and footwear -- “kolhapuri chappals”.

Taj Hotels declined to immediately comment on the matter.

“Whoever was the guest, where was I offending? Who could see my foot? Where was it visible?” Sharma told IANS.

She also stated that had it been a big celebrity or political leader in her place, they would have been saluted for being so humble and down to earth.

“If there was a big man in my place, and especially if there was a man, then he would say how authentic, how grounded.

“But I'm just a common person. So this is wrong (for me). And people say, she's being a gawar (illiterate) and she should go to dhaba and all that”.

On the social media rants on her viral post that sitting crossed-legged on a chair at a fine dining is “unhygienic”, she said: “My question is, what is unhygienic about this?”

“The larger question is who fits in and who doesn't, and why is it that the middle class never fits in,” Sharma said.

--IANS

rvt/