Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

On a beautiful monsoon Tuesday morning, I leave my brand new husband with great difficulties, get behind the wheel and take off to work.

I have not driven for quite some time but it's raining and the chances of finding a rickshaw decrease in proportion to the intensity of the rains... So here I am, hesitating between the usual road, the shortest one but also the most stressful: you need to cut your way through bikes, carts, street vendors, people, garbage trucks; and when all that macerates in mud, it just makes you feel like taking the main road, longer and full of signals but also easier...

To cut it short, I opt for the messy road. I stop at an intersection, blocked by a car trying to make some kind of u-turn. A bike with two cops suddenly appears and they go straight to yell at the driver. Who starts pulling backward frantically, getting dangerously close to my car. Despite my honking, this asshole ends up bashing me! I look at the cops who wave for me to follow the car. And while I think he is going to park to fill up some paper, he just takes off...!

Then I see red. I follow the car, full speed, hand on the horn. We turn left, I do not slow down. We turn right, I accelerate. We turn left. I see an opportunity to take over, I make a move, and I park in front of the car, cutting the way of that asshole. I never knew I could pull out such a stunt!

So I get out of the car, my legs shaking (still under the shock of this crazy chase), and I start screaming “What the fuck is wrong with you?? When you have an accident you stop!”.

And my assailant comes out, apparently as shaken as me, and starts by admiring my driving skills, and then apologizes flatly...

The driver is in fact a very beautiful young girl, who says she panicked when the cops went to her and promises to pay for the damages...

 And here come the two clowns on their bike! Enchanted! They also start by congratulating me on my performance. Take her license. Offer that we exchange phone numbers. Come at my window to say buy and tell me one more time that I am a “great person” – I don’t know if they meant a great driver or a very generous person for not beating up the other driver…

In any case, I can proudly say that they had the time of their life (or at least their day): a pretty Indian girl in a fit yoga outfit and a Parisian bitch with her fancy dress and sunglasses playing Fast and Furious in the streets of Bandra! They were too excited to even think of asking for money...

At the hour of the football World Cup, let's have a look at the Indian football prowesses...

 So you may know it or not but India does have a national football team! Created in 1937, affiliated to the FIFA since 1948 and currently ranking... 154^th (out of 207)!

In the sixties, Indians were actually among the top 3 of Asian teams. They even qualified in 1950 for the World Cup (in Brazil) but refused to participate, at the last minute. It is unclear why, the inadequate foreign exchange reserves, the long journey by ship, the obligation to wear... shoes (obviously the only reason which has been retained in the popular imagination)!

 Some Indians do watch football on TV – but almost only matches of English teams (a side effect of the colonization) are broadcast...

 Anyway, Indians and sport is not really a love story...

 Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-26143796; http://fr.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html; http://www.sportskeeda.com/football/the-1950-FIFA-World-Cup-a-missed-opportunity-for-India/ 

... or how Indian males look at women...

I must say this video is quite close to reality...

It is an ad made to fuel the discussion around the attention, the looks, given to women in India (beyond the stories of verbal or sexual abuses). And for this to change, there is quite a bit of work, going back to the source of the palpable male sexual frustration etc. etc.