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India - Bollywood or Bust!
"Excuse me ma'am. Take photo?" the young man points to his camera as a prop to his halting English. He looks up at us while his friends shuffle behind him.
Like me, my girlfriends Dee Dee Sjogren and Karen Judd are about 5'10". In Canada, this is not such a big deal.
However, there are parts of India where it certainly is. Apparently, hanging around the Taj Mahal is one of those places. Giggling Moslem girls with headscarves, awkward college boys being pushed forward by their friends, sari- swathed matrons, all take turns to pose with the big white women in the funny hats.
Okay. Maybe the hats are part of the draw…I'm wearing a broken down straw cowboy hat, Karen's is a Crocodile Dundee leather special and Dee Dee's is screaming white with guaranteed super UV protection. Evidently they're crowd pleasers.
But it's not just the height and the hats. We are traveling with Intrepid Tours. This Australian-based company prides itself on small groups and lots of cultural interaction. We are on a 15-day tour under the impeccable guidance of Jitu. Jitu is a patient, professional and very Hindu guide from Rajasthan. We know he's a good Hindu because a) he told us, and b), we've seen him in action at the temples, and c), India is like Northern Ireland. There is no such thing as not having a religious affiliation. It is declared and discussed regularly.
But I digress… Two of our fellow travelers, Jessica and Kelsey, are from the U.K. They are at the start of a 5-month trip. At 19-years-old, they are both young and beautiful. Kelsey is tall and willowy. But it is Jess that gets the attention. Jess is a buxom English maid with flaxen hair, creamy skin and rosy cheeks. She has become the baby magnet.
Everywhere they go, Kelsey is ignored, while babies are thrust at Jess to hold and presumably bless.
"Namaste," she says as reverently as possible to each mother. Namaste is the Hindi greeting and covers hello, goodbye and is generally said while the hands are prayerfully raised to the forehead in an honouring greeting that bows to the divinity recognized in each other. However, with a baby occupying her appendages, Jess can't actually do the prayer part. She sticks to sounding goddess-like instead.
"It's bloody embarrassing, isn't it?" she says that night over a steaming plate of dhal and aloo gobi. Dee Dee laughs and Karen gives Jess a quick hug. It's not so embarrassing when you're ladies of a certain age. In fact, we find it quite hysterical that they're interested in us at all and have to work at remaining composed for our almost-daily photo shoots.
In the Hindu faith, divinity informs all. Everything is a manifestation of the Ultimate Reality. It's not a bad spin on the world. So, even when we weren't being photographed, we were treated like gods and goddesses.
Interesting how that makes you want to rise to the veneration. Amazing what you can learn when the focus is reversed.
Change your focus: www.incredibleindia.org |
