Onboard train from Cairo to Luxor, I found my seat, stowed my backpack and sat down and took a breather. A teenager who looked like an Asian followed and took seat besides me, He was followed by a European in his early twenties, occupied the one next to him.
We all looked at each other exchanged smiles; guy who arrived last started the conversation and asked the Asian, where is he from? The guy replied back that he is from Japan. It looked like is knew very little English and returned back the obvious question to him. Till then the guy had no clue that it’s going to be the most unpleasant moment of his journey. He goes, ‘I am from Holland’. The Japanese guy, haven’t heard of the country named Holland till now, replies ‘Oh Poland’. The Dutch guy was obviously not happy to know that someone could not recognize the country where he came from. He gave me a helpless look and started trying his luck again. He continues ‘You know Nederland’, Japanese guy posed a flat face at him. I saw noticeable disappointment on the Dutch guy’s face. But he persisted in his efforts, ‘Holland, its in Europe’…. ‘Oh yeah Poland’. I decided to help the Dutch guy, and stressed the first syllable ‘Ho Ho’, the Japanese guy goes ‘Po Po’. More disappointment on the Dutch guys face.
Now the Japanese guy takes a pause and asked me ‘where am I from’? By now I got a little nervous and answered ‘India’. ‘Oh India…’, Delight on my face and more disappointment on the Dutch guys face. Meanwhile the Japanese guy, pulled out a electronic dictionary and typed in ‘Holland’ and found no match. He asked ‘is it English?’ (Probably meant ‘are you telling the name of the country in English’).
The next desperate attempt followed, I would say this one of the wildest attempts I have ever seen. ‘Do you know the South Korean football coach Guus Hiddink….. He is from Holland’. By this time I was laughing out loud internally. Again the Japanese guy replied back with a blank face. You cant blame the Japanese guy, its too much expectation from the Dutch. The Dutch guy smiled at me helplessly for the second time, for which I gave a reassuring smile. He pulled out a book from his back and started to read it for rest of the journey.
I understand it’s not a great feeling to be in that situation, felt pity for the Dutch guy…..
