The bumbay duck

'Are you bumbay ?'

A beefy fellow dressed as cab driver asked me outside the Manila Airport.

I interpreted this question as 'Are you from Bombay ?' , pardoned him for missing prepositions and answered 'No, I am from Delhi but I am the correct person you were waiting for'

I had noticed my office's logo on his shirt.


Ajit Agarkar was once named as the Bombay Duck , when he scored 6 consecutive ducks in India's 2003 tour of Australia.

Bombay duck is also a weird type of fish, perhaps found only in Mumbai.

This blog is not about either of the above two.

I jumped into the cab occupying the front seat. It was raining heavily and a cab-on-time was quite a respite.

'Are you bumbay ?'

The cab driver asked once again.

I repeated equally earnestly that I was from Delhi and Bombay is another city in India. I also wanted to add every Indian need not be from Bombay, just because you are aware of bollywood.

Okay sir, but you are bumbay ? right?

This irritated me. I replied in Hindi '...MC haan main bombay ka hoon , ab chala ..'

'No I am not' I replied politely still retaining the poise.
Thankfully he agreed.

I reached hotel and after a nap, hopped on to the internet. As a habit, I logged into yahoo messenger and checked the chat room for 'Indians in Manila' One yahoo feature I still use since the arrival of Google Talk. Chat rooms are the best ways of finding out the local eateries and availability of Indian restaurants.

The next day was not a working day in Manila, but the project team was working on weekend. As I entered the lobby of the building, the security fellow stopped me. In his grammatically challenged English, he asked me where I was headed for and if I were an Employee.

I tried to explain I am a consultant invited for audit. Which he didn't understand. He called up his senior and explained in Filipino that one Indian as arrived and wants to go upstairs. I noticed a sentence of English in between. Something like '...There is a bumbay here.. and should I allow him in..'

This could not be coincidence and I decided to find out the reason why Bombay was so popular here in Manila that I was being addressed as bombay-ite and not as Indian. I wished Mr Bal Thakrey was aware of this.

I logged into internet the moment I settled down. I opened the modern day Ved vyas called Google.com and learnt what does the word 'bumbay' meant.

"Derogatory (Filipino) slang term for Indians/Hindus"


As I was closing the window, there was a popup on yahoo messenger

'Are you bumbay?'

Note: Original post at

PS: Interim version, please excuse grammar & typo