Conditional Customer Service - Indian Ishtyle

The motivation for this post came from my recent "transit" experience at Kuala Lumpur International airport where I was waiting for my connecting flight back to Sydney.

Unable to resist the urge of nature's call, I made my way to the nearest ladies toilet; "oh so conveniently" placed right next to the smokers lounge! Anyways, wanting not to waste any more time, I proceeded to go right in when I met this lady who looked like she worked there as a cleaner. You guessed it, she was definitely Indian... the gold earrings and the large red bindi were more than enough clues for me to realise I could strike a conversation with her by saying "hello" in our common language; TAMIL. She ended up following me, all the time asking if I was from Malaysia and how it was that I spoke such good tamil.

She noticed my hesitation to use one of the cubicles as it was wet all over. "Nevermind, I'll sort it for you", she said and let her mop do the talking as within a matter of seconds, the wet floor was transformed into a dry one! "Relief!!!" was the word that came into mind as I went about accomplishing my task and clearing the mental block in my brain!lol.

As I walked out after washing up, I saw the cleaner lady standing at the doorstep asking me unabashedly in Tamil "Enna gift onnum illingla ? translated thus-->erm... wot about a gift?. I thought to myself "what do I give a woman who lives and work in Malaysia? besides, its not as if I asked her to do anything for me!" I figured giving her 10 ringits(which is all I had) would make her use the mop on me rather than the floor, I sheepishly said , "I haven't got enough local currency, let me get some and I'll be back!"

Ofcourse, i didn't make it back ...but here's the point... why is it that everywhere we go, once we're looked upon as Non residents or residents of more developed countries, that people from the subcontinent in low-class jobs automatically assume that customer service = remuneration in return ? afterall, was she not doing what she was being paid to do ? why should I on account of knowing fluent tamil and chatting her up (what, for like 2 seconds) pay her for her services when I never invoked them in the first place ?

I can't seem to get over the incident somehow; because in opinion I feel very strongly that it reflects very badly upon Indian culture long reknown for their unconditional hospitality.