30. I've been slapped with an Indian Stick!

Arriving in India I sort of swanned on in – I was aware of the fact that I didn’t really know what was about to hit me. Although coming from Thailand and Malaysia certain things didn’t seem so foreign – the tuk tuk’s and scrambling, the animals wandering around and the bustling ‘asianess’ that I have become so accustomed to – as well as the Indians - seen em in Malaysia so no big deal..lol..I was left thinking, hmmm ok. Kind of the same, just a different. At the same time I knew that whatever this “Indian thing” was that makes it India – had not hit me yet – I didn’t feel whatever it was..that is until we ended out day today – but I’m getting thereJ

I arrived last night and nunu (my sister) and I nattered away drinking white wino (yes please!) into the wee hours – and woke up early this morning – busy bee’s we were – ready to get our day on – we needed to draw money,eat, get a sim card and a plug for the laptop. And then book some trains and do some shopping. Easy peasy.

Well – to jump a few hours ahead – we had not been successful at the bank – my card did not work – but worked at another – so after a huge wave of relief ate some food – tick! Tummy’s full we thought we’d go for a wander – leaving the hotel for the third time, we landed up at a train station and figured we should try book these train tickets – and got sent with an Indian guy on a tuk tuk to the second train booking centre that day – oh I forgot to mention the first one we went to – probably because it was completely useless – we were told that there were no available trains but that they were available to go for drinks if we wanted to.

So at this place - we sat drinking a cup of very bad chai tea (this should have been a sign) debating over these prices and this very strange man – our yes clicks were just not clicking and after an hour of “yes, no, yes , no.” we left. We actually make a pretty good team since when one of us was saying – ok lets just do this – the other would say no, and then we’d swap roles. The big problem we had was that there are several festivals going on so it’s a really busy time – and people are travelling and so forth, and the offices would all be closed the next day – Sunday – and we had to book through a company of sorts since we’re foreigners and so on and so forth – you can’t just hop on a train here. This all seemed so odd to me and at one point I leaned over to the guy and said.

“Now look. You goda level with me here.”

“I’ve got to what?”

“I’m just being frank.” (Now I really lost him..you can see this confused Indian wondering, “Who the hell is frank? Nd on what level must I stand?”)

Jumping ahead – we had stuck to our guts and walked out of the place – about to head back to the hotel and regroup – againJ But then spotted a coke stand across the street so went to get one and right there yet another Indian man came over – a very sweet man called Anil and told us we were very lucky (if you ever get here – you will be told this by everyone – we even got offered a free tuk tuk ride because it would be lucky for the driver to take us :) but that’s a whole different story.

Amil was unlike the others – I guess  that’s the one thing (so far) that I’m not the greatest fan of here– you have to get in tune with your instincts at a rapid rate because so many of the people are not to be trusted – and we had a few of them today – but Amil was different (my yes click was clicking itself stupid)– and he took us to another gentlemen at a government office – a real one this time – yay! J  Here we met Sameer who was so kind to us,”I’ll take all your stress away.” And he did – and seemed to genuinely care about our trip and wanted to make sure we had a wonderful time. Giving us his business card we read his email,anytimeanywhere1@.... We gave a giggle and he went on to explain, “Any time, anywhere, 1. One’s for fun, two’s for you, three’s for free, four is more, five’s alive, six can fix, Seven’s heaven, eight is great, nine’s fine and ten is one, because 1and 0  is 1 and one is fun.” 

Oddly it seemed to make all the sense in the world to us J and he ended up reworking our trip - hilarious stuff – he drew us a map of our trip – the one we had planned – here it is J

And then drew up his map – below..

Well, we all had a good laugh and told him it was the African way J

We spent a good few hours there reworking the trip – when we left the day had left us too ( But it was time well spent - we are now going to see an extra place  - >>>> and staying at a hotel on the lakeJ and spending more time in Orissa which is a very good thing, and so on and so forth – no need to bore you with details:) 

But it must be said that he put so much work into it for us and  It was not easy to rework everything since we had fixed things – like our flight from Kolkata which meant we had to go our route – and we had certain places we had to be in – for certain things we wanted – and at one point he was thinking extra hard – and said, “Ok. I know. Is that elephant thing really important?” We didn’t have to say anything back, this man knew us all too well by now, just a look sufficed - so he continues,”Ok. Yes..then what if…” and so the process went on and at one point nunu, Amil and I left him to get on with some arrangements and went to sit in the back to get some fresh air – sipping on chai tea and eating bussicuts – well nunu and I did – Amir didnt,”I don’t like busicuts. I havnt eaten any for three years.” Oh he was quite the entertainment – and blithely unaware of it – which ofcoarse only made him more of a joy! He studies >>>>> and lives with his family here in Delhi – he drives them crazy in the mornings as he turns on the tv for some music – he LOVES music and dances (he mimes a move) while he gets ready for his day – this process takes two hours – and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was perhaps still drunk in the mornings when he did this? After all he does drink half a litre of whiskey a day – he likes to do this in the evenings and alone, although he does like to go out on too and thinks is a very good drunk dancer,”When sober not so good. I’m shy to dance then.” He also went on to tell us different bits of his life – here and there.

At one point he asked me, “Do you argue with the Thai women?”

Uumm.. no.

He leans forward. Face serious. He confesses, “I argued with a Japanese woman.”

Pause.

“I slapped her. One hour to explain one word. I was teaching her Hindu and she said she didn’t understand so I slapped her and asked,”Now do you understand.” She didn’t speak to me for two days. But she understood. Feel my hands. They are very hard, and big. Feel them. Feel them.”

Sian hesitantly feels them,”Ya. They are.”

Matter of factly he goes on, “They give a good slap.”

When we left we were so relieved and feeling so safe and as Amil said,”You are now smiling from the heart.”

Finally– after listening to a tuk tuk drivers life story – we arrived at The Relax hotel – and did exactly that – relaxed. And then. We went and did what girls do best. We shopped.

Tomorrow we leave for Agra. Let the journey continue! It feels like we’ve been here for a week. It’s been one day. J

I didn’t know what to expect – but I knew something was going to hit me – and that something sure has! Although I have no idea what it is – I know exactly what it is at the same time – there is no way  to explain it – not to you or to myself – all I do know is that I’ve been slapped with an Indian stick! And I’m loving it!

will post piccies soon!

xoxo