Coffee-coloured Like Me If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you'll see an article by my Dad about my grandfather (in the picture above) and the jobs he held in restaurants in London. Those of you who have met me in person know that I'm about as pale as they come, with no distinctive East-Indian features at all. I like to think that my thick wavy hair is part of that legacy, but otherwise, I burn easily in the sun like all other blue-eyed white girls. I always thought it was cool that I came from such a diverse background. On my Dad's side, his father married a woman of Eastern-European descent, and on my Mom's there's French, Scottish and Alsatian (not the dog). Given the sheer number of recessive genes in that mix, I guess the ghost-faces won out. I've begun to realize how different my family must have seemed to other families in the small town of Dorion, where I grew up. I always thought it normal to serve Indian curries on Limoges china (a legacy from my Mom's side), to have a Dad who "tans" much deeper than other Dad's, and to listen to a Mom speak perfect English with an accent that can't be placed squarely in any continent. I guess my only regret is that my Mom never learned how to make butter tarts, a dessert I've always associated with English Canada for some reason...but, no one could surpass her chou a la creme.