rheea is a co-founder for a writer’s workshop here in
bangalore. on saturday, she and her partner, the fabulous bhumika anand, had
plans to lead their current workshop’s final session at cubbon park. i tagged
along and was fortunate enough to get a small glimpse into the budding literary
artists here in bangalore.
we took both an auto rickshaw and the metro to get to cubbon
park. the metro is like any other urban city’s rail system. well, perhaps
cleaner than most given its newness and also there are only six stops so it
isn’t the most useful but still.
however, it was my first time in an auto rickshaw. these
dudes zoom like nobody’s business while half of our bodies hang out of the
open-air sides. although i found it intriguing and exciting at first… eventually,
it just felt smog-y and like sitting in lots of pollution. to be honest, i
didn’t dislike it but it did feel like i needed to constantly be drinking my
water.
at the park, we munched on a potluck array of goodies and i
got a chance to hear some of the BWW [bangalore writer’s workshop] students’
work. lots of good times. the group is a sweet, friendly, talented bunch and
they made for a lovely afternoon. there was one stray specifically that stayed
with us for the entire time. i wanted to take her home so much. she was dirty
and her ribs were jutting out. i wanted to give her a good scrub down, feed her
bits of chicken and rice, and just love up her sad-eyed self.
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| the cute gems of the bangalore writer's workshop |
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| don't you just want to take her and wrap her in your arms until she's fleshy and clean?! |
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| vinoth is the group's sweet young pup. |
if you remember, i mentioned in my earlier post that there was
something that happened saturday that was a further example of moral standards.
during the final moments of the picnic, this woman and girl came over to beg
for food. rheea started to wrap up cake and tomato rice for them. after handing
the cake over to the girl, they started to demand more food, declaring that
they hadn’t been given any cake. when you think about it, the whole situation
was really absurd. anyhow, so the girl is hiding the cake under her scarf and
the woman is pretending to be pregnant with an obviously fake bump under her
sari and the both of them are demanding food to be given to them. now bhumika
is the example of morality’s importance in this story. when she was trying to
tell them that they had received lots of food and that demanding and lying
weren’t going to fly, they started to curse all of us in kannada [a common
language in karnataka]. this really made the group very upset. a lot. to the
point where rhee was absolutely imploring them to just leave. bhumika was the
most upset and moved forward to the girl, moved her dupatta [scarf], and
pointed out the cake. they continued to curse us and we finally left. my point
in all of this is not to show the begging community in some kind of heinous
light. the begging community in all countries have aggressive members. what i
found more interesting is the indian societal reaction; instead of ignoring or
pretending like these people didn’t exist, it was dealt with in a way that
addressed the offense. i mean, to be fair, it didn’t make the results any
different but the expectation of respectful behavior… and then that
expectation being disappointed…. that was refreshing. really, it was, as odd as
that seems. why shouldn’t we speak to one another in grace and hope for the
same in return? why shouldn’t we be scandalized by anything other than that? i
felt so jaded because i wasn’t scandalized by being cursed or the attempts at
being swindled. i know its strange to call being scandalized by someone’s poor
behavior "a beautiful thing" but… well, it is.
after that, bhumika joined rheea and i on our trek home for
a bbq. it was like a “goodbye nick/ welcome rachel/ it’s saturday so let’s have
a party” kind of party- mashup celebrations really are the most filled with
love and smiles. we ate, drank and made merry. i got a chance to meet most of
rheea’s closest friends, see her mom and brother again, and got my first
official indian mosquito bite. all in all, quite lovely.
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| hawaiianed out by this girl right here. |
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| we've decided thambee is a teddy bear and a whore. so he's a teddy whore, officially. |
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| the grill men. |
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| dancing to bollywood music videos |
It is the hardsell. There will always be people who try the hardsell. Never take no for an anwer. Blame you for all the owes in their business. People following you to sell that map, book or a flute. Or the auto and cab guy. They will push you to deal. The auto guy might even start a fight "why are you shouting? This is my business. You don't take, if you don't want!" True, this was begging. But it is the same thing. Seeing so many people they think they can get a better deal.
ReplyDeleteIt happens even in corporate world. When you have have one person trying to push the invisible limit that everyone knows he won't get past. It is usually a disaster as somewhere along the line he ends up being commited to it and unable to back down. These people were too. They did not have the learning and exposure to take it down when found out. Instead, they took what looked like high road for them - curse you lot for catching them out.
And yes, Bhumika is fabulous.