A funny incident in Chennai

When I was working in Chennai, I used to live in a residential locality very close to my office - so I used to walk down to office almost every day. On a busy morning, when I was walking down to office in a hurry, a stranger approached me on the street handing a piece of paper on which an address is written. Since those were the initial days of my association with Chennai, I did not understand Tamil much, though I already started learning it. But quickly I understood from his gestures and the slip that he was handing over to me that he was looking for some address and he wants my help. But by then, neither was I very much conversant with place to guide him with directions, nor did I know how to explain him in the vernacular language. Added to those reasons, I was in a hurry to reach office. So, even without observing the address slip properly, I told him in Tamil, "I dont know" and started moving further. Immediately he said, "oh? English padikirudu teriyilliya? Paravailla." ("Oh? You don’t know to read English, is it? That’s alright!!") :-P