Sunday School!

The most mundane events can rapidly bring one back to earth. This morning, while on my way back home I stopped over at a shop selling plastic stuff. The intention was to buy plastic pot holders for pots on my balcony.
In the shop was a gent, looking happily uninterested. In my best 'angrazi', I asked the gent if the shop was open, to which he said no. I was surprised and asked him again, to which he again said no. Disappointed & annoyed I trudged off, to a neighbouring electrical shop. Post my purchase, I enquired with the incumbent if there was a plastic shop around, in the immediate neighbourhood. The guy goggled at me and said there was one next door, hadn't I seen it? I said it was not open.....................when the chappie was even more surprised.
To cut to the chase, both of us went next door, to meet our uninterested gent. After a rapid exchange in what sounded like a dialect from Rajasthan, it transpired that the shop was indeed open...............!
The, whole thing was mind boggling & made my head spin. On further enquiry, it transpired that the plastic shop guy thought I was asking for a ' bottle opener', when I asked him if the shop was open! What a mess.
The point is who created the mess. I must take the blame, of trying to be very smart and high context and over communicating, where a simple sentence would have sufficed, in probably Kannada or Hindi.What was I trying to do, communicating to the chap in English? Not only was I overcommunicating but doing so in a not so appropriate language!
Having made my purchase after some spirited haggling, this time alternating between Kannada and Hindi, I departed, not without thinking how stupid I was.This after I teach communication! As a parting shot the shop fellow asked me, why I spoke English, when I could have talked to him in Kannada!!!!
You learn all the time don't you.........................