The Staredown in.... India!

Guess what? This is the sequel to my previous post- 'Airline Man'; if you haven't read it yet, please do so before reading this one...
After two 6-hour flights, we touched down at my destination- Mumbai, Magnificent India!!! :)
Since I missed my original flight and had to go at a later date than planned, I missed the class and cultural orientation; my friends tried their best to fill me in on the culture as much as they could (but no need, I was about to learn something very practically).
A few days later, some of my friends and I decided to take a trip to the city via the train on Saturday morning- so we were four ladies (2 Indians, a Swedish girl, +yours truly) and a Dutch guy.
The Indian trains have a separate cab for women, then a general one, which usually has more men; but if the women's section is filled, there's nothing prohibiting women from sitting in the general cabs. We had a guy with us so we all just sat in the general cab. The seats were sideways facing each other, so it didn't take me long to realize that the man sitting across from me, right next to my Dutch friend Daniel was looking, no, STARING at me!
In Nigeria as it is in many other countries, if someone stares at you and you catch them at it, they look away quickly, but not this man; imagine sitting in a cab on the moving train (digity-digity-digity-digity, digity (yes, that's the sound of a moving train) bouncing back and forth, and a man seated across just keeps staring at you...that was my situation!!!! He stared, so I stared back, he kept staring, and I stared right back, and he stared back again, I stared and glared back some more, but he just stared right back unflinching. I got embarrassed after a while and looked away, very angry! My friend Daniel was laughing all this time...grrrrrr!
When I got back to my room that night, I narrated my 'stare-battle' tale to my friend Dee and here's the conversation we had after I told her...
Dee: So, ummmm you stared right back at the man?
Me: Yup, for as long as I could, but it became embarrassing because he wouldn't stop staring; so I eventually looked away.
Dee: How long did this stare-battle go on for?
Me: I don't know, wasn't really counting the minutes; but I'd say a couple of minutes
Dee: Ummmm, I just remembered you missed orientation so you didn't know this; but in India, eye contact between a random man and woman isn't appropriate.
Me: What? How come?
Dee: It is a sign of interest, more like a 'come on'; so if the man looks at you, you should avert your eyes immediately
Me: So, the more I stared at that man, the more crazy about him he thought I was????!
Dee: Yeaaaaah
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Then I woke up from my dream; ha, I wish!!!! This was no dream, it really did happen; for the next few days I walked down the street hoping to 'bump' into that man and avert my eyes:) so he would know I was not interested in him at all, but I never saw him. So, somewhere in that city is a man who is probably still telling his friends about this African girl who was giving him the 'come on' look on the train!!!!! Sigh, the story of my life!
Word out to you all... Always learn as much as you can about the culture of a place before you get there, that's what I do now!
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