Industrialist Kishore Mariwala recently took to Facebook to share an incident, writing that he was "really ashamed" of the reputation Indians seem to have abroad.
A member of the Mariwala business family, Kishore is also an avid sailor.
Having come to Phuket on a sailing holiday, he was shocked at an incident that took place while he was chartered a yacht for sailing for a week.
In a Facebook post he explains what happened after he went to the chartering company’s office to finalise arrangements.
"At the office, the receptionist took down all the necessary details & then asked me :”Sir, you are from India. Are you a Hindu”? I said “yes, why are you asking this”?She just called her boss, the manager (sic)," Mariwala narrates.
The manager, after a quick discussion in the Thai language with his colleague, informed Mariwala that unfortunately the only available skipper was Muslim.
"I hope you don't mind," Mariwala was told.
When questioned further, the manager explained, "we read in the newspapers that Hindus don’t want Muslims near them so we were worried about it”.
Detailing the incident on social media, Mariwala writes that he was "ashamed beyond words".
"I explained to him that not only I, but most of the cultured Hindus don’t behave like what you must’ve read!" he writes.
Mariwala ends his post asking, "Is this our reputation abroad - amongst common people?"
Mariwala has a stake in the homegrown consumer goods brand, Marico, which incidentally was founded by his nephew Harsh. He is also a board member for the company's non-profit arm.
In other related news, Harsh Mariwala recently took to Twitter to condemn the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In a Twitter post he wrote, "Coming from the land of non-violence, it’s unbecoming of us to witness and encourage these acts of violence. Extremely hurt seeing last evening’s news."