Indian “Road Trip"

Oct. 17, 2006

Sunday began my travels home. The boys and a taxi picked me up at noon for the 4 hour ride to Patna. Anup has only been to Patna twice before, and Rajesh has never been this far from his Village. They were both excited to join me for the 4 hour drive. I explained the concept of a “Road Trip” and told them we’d have great fun. As it turns out, the taxi that showed up had no air conditioning, and it was a long hot ride.

Along the way I taught the boys a couple car games. One is a game I used to play with my kids when they were very young. Each person in the car “races” to find an object that begins with a letter of the alphabet, beginning with A and traveling to Z. I had to adjust it a bit, as there are few signs along this rural route, but the boys quickly caught on and it was GREAT fun to watch them try and think of how to spell words in English. As it turns out, Anup has the better spoken English, but Rajesh has the better written. They promise to help each other with these skills.

Eventually, both boys fell asleep, and I watched as their heads bobbed and they looked like they hadn’t a care in the world. What was their life going to be like? What does their future hold? Who will they become?

We arrived at the airport to see if we could find me a hotel nearby, but when we asked the airport manager he said, “we have a hotel right here on the premises, all Indian airports do”. OH MY wouldn’t THAT have been convenient information to have had prior to my last night in India!

Later than evening my room phone rang. It was the airport manager and he wanted to know if it would be to much of a bother to join him for a cup of tea. After my initial fears subsided (as I made up stories of being kidnapped and robbed-RIDICULOUS) I agreed. When I arrived in his office he was thrilled to see me. He loves any opportunity to visit with tourists, and wondered if I would tell him a bit about my country. The conversation lasted for hours, and by the end it was as if we had known each other for a long time. We spoke about traffic, castes, educations, marriage, the new piece of property he just purchased to build a home, his rate of pay (he even pulled out his last paycheck stub to show me how much he makes, saves, invests and pays to the government), recreation, food and more. It was my first opportunity to really talk to an educated, middle caste man about things OTHER than the fisherman villages or bottom castes. It is said that India is only one country, but it is filled with many different people. I primarily only have experience with a small amount of those different kinds, and mostly all the lower “backward” casts.

It was interesting to talk with him about the boys. When I had first arrived I came into his office with Anup. The manager was a little suspicious of Anup and asked who he was. I said he was my student. This made Anup acceptable. Later, when the manager and I were talking, he said that he knew both boys were of a lower caste, and that they were also of two different castes themselves. The boys had mentioned to me that they were of a different caste, but neither could really explain to me what that means. When I asked how he could tell, he could not identify why. He just “knew” it to be true. The boys, to me, just look like two average boys. I don’t know how that is identified.

The next morning was the beginning of my big day of travel, and it started off with tea with the Manager. I headed out and 7 hours later landed back in Chennai.