The first time I actually SAW racisim being committed before my own eyes

My pals and I had decided to go to a Karaoke bar in Mumbai for a couple of drinks and then some. Before we landed there, we decided to grab a bite of a pizza before we started our drink binge, mainly because we were starving and more importantly, had we not eaten, it would have caused us to drink less.

So we finished our food and left for this place.

At the entrance, we were told that stags (that's people like us who don't have feminine company along with us) were not allowed. Before we could raise our voices in protest, the manager gave a very subtle wink and nodded to his right.

Standing there were two Muslim guy. Both of them were with the traditional long beards and head caps and both looked like a lot of the Iranian exchange students that I have seen often during my college days.

I agree that both of them looked and fit the description of today's vision of terrorists, but I am not sure that they were even remotely close to being one.

This could have been the classic example for an entire faith being maligned because of the actions of a few.

But I did not stop it. I did not step in and say that they should be allowed to access the club. That is a decision of the management of the club and what they feel threatens the security of the place. And I am sure they were not doing it to make trouble for these two people. Mumbai, after all, has been known to be fair to all kinds of people.

I think the entire getup, with the beards and the head caps...the modern world's view of a conservative - and often considered hardline extremist - muslim, was what caused the people at that bar to react the way they did.

When they left, the manager even walked up to me, put his hand around my shoulder and said in the local lingo "Pataa nahin, terrorist jaise hi lag rahe the naa?" Didn't you think they looked like terrorists?

I had to agree. It was a better-safe-than-sorry approach.

But it was also discrimination. And I am not proud of it. That is not me. And that is not Mumbai.

I have a lot of Muslim friends and I know them for their warmth and their love. I have shared a lot of Id festivals with them, often quarelling with my friend's mother that she did not invite me for the delectable Biryani and Sheer Korma.

I hate what these few people have done to dishonour an entire faith. In the name of waging a holy war, a jihad, they have managed to malign their own faith.

After all, a terrorist's bomb or bullet does not discriminate between an infidel and a muslim. It kills regardless of religion.