"Nice to see you again!"

I smile, confused, waiting for an explanation.

"What class are we in together?" the strange man asks.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I feel like I've seen you so many times before!"

"Really? I don't go to this university." (I'm visiting a friend.)

"Oh...some other Indian..." And he walks away.

I'm too shocked to know what to do. There's definitely more than one problem with that statement.

1. Indian = Nationality

Indian isn't even an ethnicity. The word "Indian" "refers to nationality, but not ethnicity or language." This is the second line in the Wikipedia article about Indian People.

I don't see how you can infer something about someone's nationality (or religion or language) by looking at them.

For the record, I'm not Indian by nationality, I'm Pakistani. But forget that bit for a second, because I guess everyone from the subcontinent is the same? (not)

More importantly, all Indians look the same apparently, even though there's a whole bunch of different ethnicities in India.

India the second most populous country in the world and is wonderfully diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion, language and culture/ customs.

Now, let's just assume "Indian" is an ethnicity.

2. People from the same ethnicity don't look the same.

I don't think that statement needs more explanation than that. I'm pretty sure that this applies to all ethnicities.

3. Please don't put your forgetfulness of the people you see on a daily basis down to their ethnicity.

Please give people the individual importance that they deserve.

*end rant*