I drop Mitra off at work the other day with our sadarji taxi driver, Charanjit.
I'm riding shotgun and Naya is still in the back where she was asleep with Mitra until Mitra got out at Kasturba Gandhi Marg. I decide to join Naya in the back since child safety borders on obsolete - most cars don't have a rear seat belt which makes the car seat kind of useless, so we resort to holding her closely as we cruise Delhi. So as I'm getting out at this red light, I hear a voice calling my name from the auto-rickshaw behind me. It's Ken, our friend from DC who we've been trying to get in touch with since we got here 3 weeks ago. The chances of this happening to you in Delhi? 1 in 14 million. Not a small town. He's been in India for over a year. We briefly exchange greetings as the light turns green and the cars honking at me becomes deafening. Our vehicles keep passing each other, and I yell to follow us, but we lose each other eventually. We end up at Ken and his wife Carmen's place for dinner the next night sampling some Indian wine as well. Kindly they lend us plates, cutlery and a gas stove to survive in our new rental flat.
1 comment:
that's how it is, the random smile from powers greater bringing the 2 individuals together in a city of millions - it also makes me nostalgic for my childhood being loose in the back of a station wagon, with 3 other kids, going 80 mph on the highway on a saturday afternoon - was I aware of the danger? no just the excitement. it must be awesome for naya to go from the car seat constraint to "freedom".
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