Paki Who!

I could see a Pakistani in his 20's managing a small kiosk in the bus terminus. 

A white guy in his 20's walked in and said "Paki... get me a cigarette". 

I was a spectator to this and from the little that I have seen in "Bend it Like Beckham" or few other Brit movies, I understood that for an Asian to be called a "Paki" is the equivalent of a "Black" being called a "nigger". I thought there will be an altercation between the shop keeper and his customer, but the shop keeper obligingly gave the cigarette to his customer. 

The white guy paid the due money and walked off. 

Now, it was my turn, I told the shopkeeper, "I need vodafone SIM card".

The Pakistani looked at me with anger all over him.

I thought I will tell him, it is not me who called him a Paki, but it was his previous customer who did that.

And then the Pakistani quizzed me "Where am I from ?"

I told him in a sincere tone "I am from India"

And he said, "Isn't Hindi your national language, can't you speak in hindi with me ?"

I was at a loss of words, didn't know what I should tell him... 

Maybe I thought I should tell him, "why do you care ?"

But, I told, "I come from the South India, where we don't speak Hindi that much and we are mostly comfortable with our mother tongue or English".

The Pakistani cared less what I was blabbering.

But yeah, he made his point and showed how irritated he was, not able to digest that a South Asian instead of sticking to his culture roots, is speaking in a crazy foreign language.