Kishore V. Mariwala (Board member of Marico Innovation Foundation, a non-profit arm of Marico)
A chemical engineer from MIT, Kishore Mariwala shared a disturbing incident on his social media platform Facebook on January 5. He expressed his disgust over an incident which took place in Thailand, Phuket. It reflected the condition of India in current times of unrest.
Describing the incident, he posted," I was ashamed! I have come to Phuket, Thailand for a sailing holiday. I have chartered a yacht with a skipper for sailing for a week. On arrival here yesterday, I went to the chartering company's office to finalise the arrangements. At the office, the receptionist took down all the necessary details & then asked me: Sir, you are from India. Are you a Hindu? I said: yes, why are you asking this? She just called her boss, the manager. He came out & they both talked something in Thai language. The manager turned to me and said: Sir, all our skippers except one have gone with our other yachts. The only one left is a Muslim. I hope you don't mind that.
I was shocked and asked : why are you asking this? Why should I mind?
He said: we read in the newspapers that Hindus don't want Muslims near them so we were worried about it!
I was ashamed beyond words. I explained to him that not only I, but most of the cultured Hindus don't behave like what you must've read!
IS THIS IS OUR REPUTATION ABROAD- AMONGST COMMON PEOPLE?
I was really ashamed."