Dear Diary

 

 

Dear Diary,

 

Now first of all, you might think why would a grown man have a diary? Why would any man have a diary for that matter? Well, after a long day of chauffeuring tourists around, I decided to pick you up at a local shop in India. Every family that I show around India is different. Though one family seemed different. The Das family isn’t your average family. Although they may look average with a husband, wife and three kids, they are far from it. As soon as the mother, Mina was out of the husband’s view, he turned to the child to ask her and called her by her first name. Though many people may not think much of this, but here in India we would never refer to someone’s parents as their first name in front of the child.

 I also couldn’t believe what she was wearing. She had a skirt! Indian women were not allowed to show skin and here Mrs. Das was showing off her legs. Although I see the common American do this every day, but I am still not used to it, as my wife covers up as much as she can whenever possible. 

Anyway, as we got in the car and started driving, we soon had to come to a stop. Hanuman, or as the Americans call them, monkeys were blocking our way. This is very common to see this sort of thing here, but for the average American who isn’t used to this, it all was amazing to them. They were taking pictures left and right while the children in the back laughed as the hanuman rolled off the front of the car. It really was a funny thing to see. As the monkey’s cleared the way, the kids settled down and we began driving again. 

I was intrigued about how many questions Mrs. Das was asking me. This is the first woman to ever show interest in my side job. Now your probably wonder what my other job is. Well, I help out a doctor to translate from Gujarati to Indian. My wife doesn’t ask me about it at all, for she doesn’t approve. It reminded her of the son she lost. So, whenever somebody asks her what I do, she says doctor’s assistance. It truly saddens me that she is not proud of my work, but I am glad that Mrs. Das is asking me about it at the same time. Much to my disappointment, the conversation came to an end and we were all left with silence.

 When i took a look in the rear view mirror of the car, I noticed something very strange. There was very little interaction between Mrs. Das and her children, and when there was, it wouldn’t always be in the nicest way. I didn’t think much of it or take time to think it through since we had found a roadside restaurant to eat lunch at. The lunch was delicious! This was one of my favorite places to eat. 

Once we had finished we all took a picture by a nearby tree to save the memory. Mr. Das took a picture and Mina and I, which I thought was nice of him. I was even more grateful when he asked for my address so he could send me the picture. Although I wrote it down quickly and handed it t him, I forgot to check it over, just incase I made that common mistake. I watched as mrs. Das put it in her knapsack thinking it would be safe there. 

Getting back into the car, I drove them to an acient temple built between 1243 AD and 1255AD. I explained it’s past to them, and they seemed interested in what I had to say. Walking along the temple, I noticed some topless statues. This was frowned upon in India. Why would they have topless statues in India? It never occurred to me before this. Maybe long ago they had different values then we do now. This is one thing I would never know. Well, maybe I could go to the nearest library, but with my two jobs I hardly have time for myself. This was my last stop for the day before I had to bring the Das family back to the hotel. 

We made small conversation as we traveled. I really didn’t want to see the Das family go. Especially Mrs. Das. Thankfully there was one more stop that Mr. Das wanted to go to. It was a quick drive. Once we got out more monkeys met us. It is very important not to feed them. Everyone wanted to go explore, but Mina. As a tour guide, I was forced to go with them, even though I secretly wanted to stay with Mrs. Das. She must have read my mind, because just as I was about to make my way, she told me to wait. I did as I was told and together we watched her son poke a monkey with a stick. She commented on how brave she was, but all I could think about was Mrs. Das and how beautiful she looked. It was the next sentence that took me out of my daze. She started talking about how he wasn’t Raj’s son. All I could think about was how a woman so great as her could cheat? 

I watched as she took out her puffed rice and threw some into her mouth. It took her a while to compose herself before she spoke. She told me about how she had gotten married really young and how she wasn’t in love with him anymore. This brought sadness to me, but also a little hope. She told me bout how terrible she feels looking at her children. This broke my heart. No mother should have that feeling about her children. I then asked her something, I now regret. I asked her if what she was feeling was pain or guilt. This had clearly angered her. She walked away from me. I watched her walk away unknowingly dropping pieces of puffed rice as she ate them out of her bag. I wonder if I should have warned her about the monkeys eating the puffed rice she was trailing behind. 

As she got closer to her husband we noticed that one of her sons was missing, Bobby. I looked frantically around, but couldn’t see him anywhere. All of our heads turned to a screaming noise. It was then that I knew it was Bobby. You should have seen this poor kid. It was a horrible site to see. Monkeys had surrounded him. I didn’t know to do. My feet were frozen to the ground. A minute went by before I picked up the near by branch and shooed them away. Thankfully Bobby was fine. 

I watched as Mrs. Das hugged her son and reached for a hairbrush out of her knapsack. As she took out the hairbrush, the piece of paper with my address blew away into the wind. No one but me noticed and I wasn’t about to make a big deal about it. I guess this all traces back to if you do something your not supposed to, whether it’s cheating, or feeding the monkeys, something bad is going to come out of it. I now realize that some things are meant to be and some just aren’t. Live your life the way you want to and if something good comes your way, then so be it.

Thanks for listening,

Kapasi