Tibet Charity was closed today because
the local Tibetan Children's Village school was having a celebration.
This being an important day for the Tibetan community in general, a
bunch of stores around town were closed, too. Gill, Gusti, and the
two Danish doctors who recently arrived to volunteer at TC went; I
had planned on going but wound up packing instead.
Because, you see, this morning Brij
managed to get us train tickets to Rajasthan. I had begun to wonder
if it was ever actually going to happen. It's official though –
tomorrow evening we've got tickets for a train from Pathankot (we'll
get a bus there from McLeod Ganj) to Jaipur, and from Jaipur we'll
travel around Rajasthan for a couple of weeks before I come back to
Dharamsala, Brij goes to Gujrat and then back west, and Marie, who is
supposed to be meeting us in Jaipur, continues her journey around
India.
I'm only taking one backpack with me, I
think. This is great, except for the fact that it means I have to
store everything else I've got in my possession here. It's not an
ideal situation, but it could certainly be worse. I'm moving out of
my room at Pause Dwelling because, frankly, I don't want to pay 2-3
weeks worth of rent if I'm not even going to be in the same state.
Speaking of not being in the same state, Gill headed back to New Zealand today;
it'll be a little weird around here without her. She was the one who
first showed me around McLeod, and we've grown to be friends over the
last few months. Safe travels, Gill! Maybe I'll come visit you in NZ
sometime!
Today was also Brij's last full day in
town. The original plan was to return to the disco, but those plans
fell through as we realized that Brij, Kalden, and I seemed to be the
only ones who were actually planning to go. Truth be told, I wasn't
entirely feeling it myself; I kind of wanted to just chill for what
was going to be my last night in town for a while, as well.
Everybody's leaving, all at once...
Verity, Gill, Brij... I'm leaving too, I guess, but I'm coming back.
My students made me promise I'd be back before the end of the
semester. :)
Anyway, Brij decided we should have
pizza for his last dinner in McLeod. Om Cafe makes a damned good
Roquefort/walnut/”chilly” pizza, so that's exactly what we had
(along with an eggplant/herb/tomato pizza). Delicious, and for less than 200 rupees.
During his stay in India, Brij has become close friends with one of
the local families who happens to own a cafe down the road. One of
the sons was having a birthday party today, and they said that he had
to go. In fact, they were waiting until he arrived to cut the cake.
No pressure or anything.
He invited Kalden and me to come with
him, making the argument that it was a party and likely to have
dancing like the disco would, and since we had scrapped that idea, we
may as well still get some dancing in and cake while we were at it. I
decided to take him up on the offer, mainly since I plan on leaving
some clothing here when I leave India and there's a good chance I'll
leave it with them since they're friends of his. I thought I may as
well meet the girls so I'd know who to talk to later on when the time
came to make the drop off.
We arrived and they ushered us in,
asking Brij why he was late. It's like he was a minor celebrity
there, or perhaps more appropriately, a part of the family. They
welcomed me just as warmly.
The birthday boy turned 12 today. I
told Brij I had no idea how to sing “Happy Birthday” in Hindi,
half jokingly, but he promptly started teaching me. As it turned out,
we sang it in English anyway. I don't know if it's some kind of
Indian tradition or just one in that family, but after the candles
had been blown out, the birthday boy grabbed a handful of cake and offered it to
each of us in the room while a woman, perhaps Mom, cut the rest of it
into actual pieces. He got to me, held out his hand, and said
“Auntie?” – I was touched. It's something I'm still getting
used to here: “Auntie” and “Uncle” are what Indians call
people older than themselves as a term of respect. It's kind of like
“Sir” or “Ma'am” but it also conveys this sense of warmth,
unlike in English. How could I say no to such a sweetie? Truth be
told, the cake itself wasn't anything special... but the presentation
more than made up for it.
 |
| Brij (|with frosting) and some of the girls. |
After everyone finished eating, the
music got turned up and the sisters started dancing. I got pulled up
to join – which of course I didn't mind – and as the evening wore
on I found myself giving an impromptu bellydance lesson. One of the
girls in particular stuck by my side the whole night, mirroring every
move I made. She's a pretty darn good dancer, actually, and I got her
to show me a few Bollywood moves. They were all very, very sweet; I
told them I'd be back from my trip in a couple of weeks and that I'd
teach them bellydance if they taught me Hindi. Their eyes lit up –
easy! What a great deal, right? They told me I was doing pretty well
already, even though my vocabulary is pretty limited; apparently my
pronunciation is good, at least. They all seemed thrilled to have
made a new friend. I was even requested to make sure I was back in
town by November 7th so I could attend a birthday party
for one of them... we'll see how Rajasthan goes, but I think I might
try to get back for that. I may learn some Hindi and Bollywood moves
yet!
Brij and I were the last guests to
leave. It took us a while to actually get out of there; he's been
around here for the last 8 months and everyone was sad to see him
finally go. All the girls as well as the birthday boy gave us hugs
goodbye, and he called me Auntie again; Brij even seemed impressed
with how quickly I'd reached “Auntie” status. A couple of the
younger girls insisted he come back next year, then that both of us
come back next year, and by the time we left they'd gotten me to
promise I'd come visit when I got back in town. I wish I'd gotten to
know them sooner. I'll just have to make the most of my last few
weeks when I get back to McLeod Ganj...
