Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

This morning my rickshaw driver had no change he had to give me back 20 on 50 rupees. He forced me to ask some watchman. Who didn’t have the change.  

Then he wanted to force me to go and ask the cigarettes walla. I told him “No. YOU go.” (firstly I am shy and secondly it is his fault if he doesn’t have the change – which is actually debatable but not when they have attitude like this one!).  

So he refused to go. And with such an air... I would have slapped him... 

 

So I went up to the office and started working. It took him about fifteen minutes to realise that I was not going to back down! Whereupon he sent to watchman up to seek his due! 

 

 

A few hours later, I was discussing the “development” of one of my guys. Here is the conclusion of the session: 

-         Me: So we put that you are going to read a book about a great leader. Do you have any name in mind? 

-         Him: Yes! Hitler. 

-         Me (distracted): Ok, ok.  

-         Me: Give me the title, I'll put it in your sheet.

-         Him: Hitler 

-         Me: Whaaaaaat??  

-         Him: Yeah he was a great leader! 

-         Me: True. But he also got millions of people killed... Okay, Let's put that you're going to read a book about a great business leader ok?

 

 After a Chilean wedding, I went to an Indian wedding...  

Two weddings in one month! And completely out-of-season with the Chilean winter and the Indian monsoon! 

 

Two weddings in one month! Me who went to like three weddings in my entire life and is not too fond of them (and here a beautiful understatement ;)).  

 

But you can’t say no to a wedding in Goa can you? J 

 

It was my friend in Delhi. A girl I met one year after her divorce with a Kerala guy and when I was in the middle of a break-up with mine – this 'anti-mallu' thing brought us together pretty fast ;) Back then she was trying to get back in the game – i.e. she was looking for a husband, had thus registered on shaadi.com (marriage.com), met a guy and deleted her account. Nobody in her entourage believed in this relationship nor wanted to accept it: an Indian guy, divorced, 8 years older than her, living in Hong Kong, and once again from another (inferior) caste. 

 

Except for me who, in my post-break-up madness, was seeing everything impossible becoming possible... She encouraged me in each of my delusions and I reciprocated very well! And now, ten months after they met, they were getting married in Goa! 

 

The wedding started on Friday afternoon with the mehendi ceremony (a temporary henna tattoo) which I missed but of which I got a picture! 

 

My brother and I arrived on Friday night, under a light rain, in a luxury hotel (all on the princess expenses – which is not just an expression since as a matter of fact the family of the bride paid for everything). Just in time to get into a sexy dress (or my disguise as an item girl (the half-haired bimbo of any bollywood film self-respecting)) and join the bollywood-themed party. Nice evening where the friends and family have prepared bollywood dances, texts etc.

 

The next day we had free time up to 2 PM, time of the actual marriage. And I am not sure I understood anything about it... Basically you spend hours getting dressed (in Indian clothes), putting makeup on you, getting your hair done etc. just to see the crowd of the groom passing by dancing to the (deafening) sound of the drums and this lasts for a very, very longtime. Because after that all the rites of marriage take place and you are free to attend them but the invitation states otherwise: “While we are getting married, you can pop over and get some lunch”!  

 

It was anyway 4 PM and after a snack we badly needed a nap. No way to power through another party night otherwise! The major event of which was, for me, a letter I got from my lover boy. An old uncle from the bride side who wrote to me on a napkin "I love you" followed by a love letter in Hindi he translated to me... 

 

And voilà! 

Some refreshing news!! And not coming from crciket but from football - who knew anybody could play football in India?? Let alone tribal girls from a far-far east village??

"Eighteen girls from a village on the outskirts of Ranchi had on July 13 finished third in Gasteiz Cup, an Under-14 tournament, in Victoria Gasteiz in Spain. The tribal girls were representing Yuwa India, an NGO founded by a 30-year-old American Franz Gastler."

Sources:

• The NGO
  
• IndianExpress
• An article of The Hindu Young, special, on the ball and ripping apart the net in Spain - The Hindu.pdf 
• An article of The Hindu with an interview of Franz Gastler Franz Gastler turns Ranchi girls to football - The Hindu.pdf