My accent

A couple days ago, I took my son to the Barnes and Noble in Naperville. He likes to visit Thomas the Tank Engine train table assembly at the second floor when he is there. There was another family of 4 there and one of the son's name was Drew. His mother's voice somehow sounded as though she was calling out Dhroo with a mild sound on the 'h' and a rather pronounced 'r'. It definitely did not sound like Droo with heavy 'D', very little 'r' and long 'oo'. So, I was surprised and I asked the mother if his name was Dhruv. Thats my son's name too. That was it, that was the end of my curiosity and surprise. However, later on, it looked like I surprised the mom too. You see, this family was not Indian-born immigrants (as I am). They were many-generations-born-in-America Afro-American and the mother immediately shot back with a wide smiling face - " Where are you from?". Now it was my turn to be surprised. Why am I being asked within the first 30 seconds of a conversation as to my origins? Somewhere in my mind I felt like I'd ticked off the woman. I searched for an answer - Should I say Aurora or Naperville? Then I saw the really perplexed yet know-it-all look on her face and got the drift. I said I am from India. Pat came the next question - "yeah but which part". I go "Mumbai - Bombay". She goes - "Ah!". I go "why?". She goes, "no your dialect sounded like you came from the southern part of India". That honestly is the first time I ever heard that. Especially so because she mentioned dialect. When could I have changed my dialect? However, it was delivered with such confidence that for a moment I thought. "Really?". Then I went, "you seem to know quite a bit about India". And so on until the conversation went into easy territory.
Well, I don't think either of us meant anything else than surprise at each other's pronunciation. But, I just felt like writing about this little piece. God bless her on the very holy day (holiday) today and tomorrow.