Pedro Mota, the YouTuber from the Netherlands who was manhandled on Sunday by a trader named Nawab Hayath Sharif in Chor Bazaar, Bengaluru, was happy to meet some friendly people on the same day at the same market, and he greeted them with “Jai Shri Ram”. Feeling cheered up after his unnerving experience earlier, Mota also said, “That’s India, bro!”
Mota’s selfie video shows him talking to three men, asking for directions to any shop where he might be able to get a good bargain on “nice T-shirts”. The men are all smiling at him and they give him precise directions to the right shop(s). Earlier that day, the Dutch traveller, while walking around the market, had his left hand and forearm grabbed in a very aggressive manner by Sharif, who also shoved the foreigner, all because the latter was making a video (with the camera in his right hand).
This time, Mota again had his left hand in a stranger’s hand, but this was a friendly clasp. Touching the nearest man on the shoulder in a social gesture, Mota says in the video, “It makes me happy to see smiling faces. Trust me, today I’m very happy with smiling faces. Have a good day.” The Dutchman and the trio of Indians all smile and wave at each other as the traveller continues on his bargain-hunting.
As he keeps walking and making the selfie video, a laughing Mota says into the camera, “See? [Just saw a lot of] nice faces. That’s India, bro! Absolutely.”
Referring to the day’s previous incident — he was practically attacked by the trader named Sharif, who was later arrested — the traveller shrugs it off, his spirit buoyed by the more recent happy encounter. Mota says in the video, “Here’s the thing, you know. Anything like that, what just happened [here] today, can happen in the Netherlands, if you go to the big cities.”
He says in the video that such an incident can happen anywhere in the world, and it does not mean that “you have to stay inside, you know, close the curtains, or try to live the most safe life as possible (sic)”.
