Hindi/Punjabi no longer a secret language in Videsh!

Today Papa and I went to Indian Embassy in London to get my OCI stamp... big YAY for that first!! I could write a book about my day at the embassy, some other day maybe, today I want to discuss an embarrassment caused by something we Indians often venture into abroad! Speaking with fellow Desis in our secret HIndi/Punjabi, thinking none of the non-desis understands, and we speak our mind, braving it with what ever comes to mind! ;)

Getting back to the story at hand, Papa and I had to drop off the passport @ the embassy by 12pm and pick it up after 3pm, so we decided to walk and explore central london, and landed up in Convent Garden (2 minutes walk from the embassy)... lots of shops, street shows/entertainment, and street stalls of food and interesting creations by aspiring artists, lots for passers-by to browse. While we were browsing though the Janpat style stalls, we came across art work of an artist I had previously seen on a previous visit to the same place. This artist - 'Chris' had copied his work from another very famous artist (can't recall his name), as i have seen his work before and jigsaws are also available in his work. But anyways, Chris claimed it was his own work/creation, when I had last seen it, so I began to share my story with dad in Punjabi. Today, Chris was not present at his stall, instead a Brit friend of his was filling in for him. So while we were browsing through the cards, he started to tell me how it takes Chris one year to create his work and it's inspired from another famous artist (basically he started to tell me something I had been discussing with Dad in Punjabi, on his own, which I found a bit strange as I had not enquired or initiated the conversation ~ Brit Sales people unlike American's don't take any interest in helping/talking to customers). Anyways by the end of it I landed up buying a card and when he retuned my change, he also added a 'shukriya' with a cheeky grin, to which I was astonished and embarrassed! The chap understood everything I had been saying about his artist friend being a copy cat... which was true, but the moral of the story ~ Gone are the days when Hindi/Punjabi was our secret language against the Videshi's ;)