Feel Good Stories

Or, to put it without the editorial content, travellers' tales:

As we reached our room in the resort, the attendant apologised that he had forgotten to put towels in the bathroom. In broken Arabic, we said that was not a big problem. He promptly asked whether we were from Hind. After confirming that we were, but haven't seen Amitabh Bachchan in person (which would have been the next question), we found that our broken Arabic had won him over. Before leaving the room, with his thumb up and a palm laid over his chest he gestured that Indians are keda (great) and close to the heart of Egyptians. This is what we had repeatedly heard with a lot of warmth, over the past fourteen months.

Egypt. Who would thought it! One travels and learns. And some who don't travel, learn by reading about others' travels. More:

Being Indians, in a crowd of Italian and Spanish vacationers gave us certain advantages. On a glass- bottomed boat that would take us to the underwater treasure-trove at the centre of the Red Sea, the guide made room for us at a vantage point. The waiter at the seaside restaurant promptly put us at a table by the window. All the time we felt out of place amid European tourists with their tanned limbs and designer swimsuits, the Egyptians were trying to make us feel at home. Even a plebian would mention how we hailed from the ancient cultures of the world and had a lot more in common than we knew.

And Mithun makes them cry.