So I’m walking back from the bank, it’s 4-ish, hot and humid. I turn into the road going home, when I am accosted by a tall figure, lugging several plastic bags that say “Bombay Dyeing.” He is speaking Hindi, I don’t fully register what he says, but hear the last bit, which is “dikhana hai” (“must show”), which I interpret to mean “show me,” or some such, and think he wants me to direct him somewhere. I stop, give him my usual spiel about how he really ought to learn the language of these parts, and ask him what he wants.
He starts opening one of the bags and wants to display the bed-sheet it contains, no doubt to sell it to me. I immediately do a big “no-thank you” namaste to him, saying I did not want to buy anything, that anyway I had stopped because I thought he needed help. He insists, and I start moving, saying that, just because I spoke Hindi and only stopped to ask whether he needed help, it did not mean I was going to buy something.
He gets affronted and, believe it or not, says “toh aap attitude dikha rahe hain?” as I move away. WOW! As I walked on, I remarked that HIS attitude was rude. He shouts (abuses?) at me as I walk down the street to my house. And yes, keep looking back to see whether he might be following me, walk past my house in case he was looking down the street to see where I went.
Left a bad taste in my mouth.