When i flew out of Boston in November, I had the feeling that my month long vacation was too long. I’m sure I wouldve freaked at the time if I had known that it would take me a lot longer than that to return. However, yesterday, when I did find out that was to be the case, my instinct was to be thrilled. If anyone had looked my way at that time though, they would have seen a morose looking guy. I couldnt very well have walked out of the embassy looking elated after having my visa process delayed due to “administrative requirements”.
So when I did walk out, to the joy of my fleecing, conniving autorickshawallah, I forced an expression of disappointment, though, to say the least, I felt a little liberated. In my mind, i was thinking that the entire “india trip” which had so far been hurried and fleeting, now had the possibilkity of becoming complete and fulfilling. So on the way home, I gladly played along with the dramatic game, listening to his raves, rants and preachings, thinking to myself, that I was privileged to be fleeced at least by a countryman.
While he was so transparent in his guile and actually entertaining while he repeatedly try to convince me of his sincerity, I put on a dull opacity that made him feel the need to constantly cheer me up. Dramatically stopping the auto to preach a little, he turned around and told me that I must feed the hungry and poor tonight, in order to appease the forces that be. Then again, this time the sermon being about being good to my parents!! On the way, in the course of his monologue, he talked foul of babus, women, delhi, the embassy, sardars (which people often mistakenly do to me, and ive stopped punishing them for it, lol). So much so that it seemed that he liked no one around him, but, of course, for me.
And so, when, in the final act, he was going full swing in trying to swindle the last 200 rupees from my wallet, I did not feel the urge to stop him, rather, with a sadistic sort of pleasure, I consciously induced him to make more dramatic effort. This he took to heart, and with minimum encouragement, delivered with great gusto a plethora of popular dialog from hindi cinema, in a performance that could have sent the king khan packing. Finally we parted, a grand exchanged between our wallets but spirits equally high, phone numbers exchanged with possibly the luckiest man in delhi this week.
Later, I nonchalantly walked home, changed, and caught the next bus to the nearest den, served myslef numerous rum and cokes and made plans for the weeks to come. By the end of the evening, I had already booked my flight tickets to Udaipur, the first of many excursions that would not have been possible without being delayed.