close call? or my imagination?

When you are in a new country, you at a subconscious level are always careful about not offending your hosts. You don't want any trouble anyways and you don't want it even more on their turf.

Yesterday evening I went out for a walk. To explore the neighbourhood. It was a nice evening. Must be around 12-14 degree C. Clear sky and a sunny day. I had my Walkman on and listening to linkin park. There was a narrow footpath beside a river ( more of a rivulet ). I decided to take it. It was nice and quiet. It had the river and some trees on on side and more trees and some houses on the other side. The path had gates at regular intervals to prevent bicycles and strangely horses! Well I am new to this country so maybe there are horse riders riding around and i have just not come across any.

I took this path and was walking merrily. Then as I turned around one corner, about 25-30 meters away I saw trouble. There was one more of those gates and hanging around that gate was a group of 3-4 young fellows. It was 6 pm and these guys were drinking beer and having fun. I dont mind people having a good time but the way they were dressed and their language was a bit unnerving. They were dressed in leather jackets, jeans and boots that seemed pretty heavy. I decreased the volume on my walkman and kept walking. 15 meters, 10, 5, one by one they were getting aware of my presence and were stopping to talk just to watch me.

I was struggling not to get intimidated. I had just read news and incident of hate crime a few days ago. I pushed the thought far at the back of my mind. And this looked something like the beginning of that incident. One of the guys was bald except for a line of hair in shape of steep pyramids, running from the top of his temple to the back of his head. Typical punk style. There was a girl with lots of mascarra around her eyes. She was checking me out and the guy looking at her then looking at me. In such situations I try to avoid any confrontation and this guy was sitting on the gate through which I wanted to pass.

My mind was racing as what to do to avoid confrontation. There was a waist high obstacle just to the side of the gate. I decided to jump over it. The guy on the gate was looking at me with a look "even-if-you-ask-me-i-will-not-move". I climbed the obstacle and jumped over it. The guy on the gate was still looking at me. But the look in his eyes had slightly changed from "who the hell are you?" to "hmm thats better". I dont know why i did that jumping over the obstacle. I guess we Indians are used to adjust and over here, I wanted to avoid confrontation so it was double the reason for me to avoid requesting him to let me through the gate. I looked over my shoulder and he still was glaring/staring at me. Him and all of his friends. I instinctively smiled at him and said "Cheers!". I was expecting a smirk or a snort. But to my surprise the response was quite friendly. I was relieved!

Maybe they were not anti-social people anyway and I was getting worried for nothing. Maybe they were and my demeanor didnt provoke them. Maybe they were regular in that area and I was a new comer and hence giving me all that attention. Anyway the point is, not all people are anti-social. Its all in our minds. We keep seeing images of such people in a negative light on the television, in movies etc. I dont know, I might be wrong but I am an optimist.