Coming up for air from Lexington, KY. First impression of Lexington – it is one huge horse stable!!
Remember the wood fence that we typically put around horse farms? Well that is exactly the fence that is used here everywhere…. around housing complexes, gas stations, shopping malls, Macdonalds and even the airport!!
This morning, I had one of those dreaded very early morning flights. I had put my alarm for 4:15 am. Turns out I did not need to bother. Due to my ongoing jetlag, I was up by 3:30 am already.
Got ready, came down and hailed a cab by 4:45. And told the cab driver to take me to the nearest Starbucks first. In about ten minutes, we were there. The Starbucks had barely opened. Bought him a coffee and got myself one. And then started chatting with Naftali, my cab driver on the long drive to the airport. I am glad I did. He was very funny and extremely knowledgeable.
I asked him about Uber. As you know many cities are trying to ban Uber (I guess this is cutting off the revenues that cities get from selling those taxi decals). I wanted to see what he thought about this new emerging competitor. I was stunned by his in depth financial analysis of why Über is good both for the customer as well as people like him. I learnt from him that Maryland is in the process of giving license to Uber to operate. He will become a Uber driver then!
I was so impressed by his analysis that I asked him about his background. Turns out, he is from Kenya. Given the strong connections that India has with Kenya, we quickly found some common grounds to talk about. Cricket, of course, was a common interest topic. I understood from him that Kenya’s soccer is in a bad shape because it is a very politicized institution. But they are big rugby players.
I noted that of all the former British colonies that adopted cricket, Indian subcontinent is the only part of the world, that never adopted rugby too. He had a prompt analysis for that –
“You know why? Because you guys are too skinny”.
I laughed out loud.
“No no, you guys have great genes. Your girls are so beautiful”.
“Really?”, I asked.
“Absolutely. But you know what I do not like about the skinny beautiful Indian girls in Kenya”?
“No. But do tell me”
“Man, they never look at us. Indian girls will only marry Indian boys. They never marry us”
I laughed out so loud this time that I almost spilled my coffee on my lap!
Found out that he is one of eighteen siblings. Eighteen!! His dad has two wives. Simultaneously. I was almost going to ask him if the punishment for multiple marriages in Kenya was multiple sets of inlaws but I bit my tongue. Here is another interesting fact I learnt. Kenya is 86% Christian and they are now legalizing polygamy. There is a law that is getting worked on for this. I was pretty surprised. I was wondering whether the gender ratio was messed up so bad that they had to make a law for this. Found out that by prevailing customs, the eldest wife got the lion’s share of inheritance. To bring equity and fend off future problems, this law is being passed to make sure all wives get equal parts of the inheritance.
From there we moved on to my favorite subject – geopolitical issues. After understanding how much effect the challenges in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia are having on Kenya, I asked him about corruption. Of course, it is high. But I learnt another thing from Naftali this morning.
“We copied one thing from India on this front”
“And what is that”? I asked.
“We have set up shame sites”.
“Shame sites?” I was bewildered.
Evidently, in Kenya they have websites where you can post clandestinely taken recordings of people taking bribes and post names and stories of bribe taking incidents to shame them in front of everybody including their families. I did not have the faintest idea that this is a common practice in India!!
By this time we had already reached the airport. It was very early and I could not find anybody nearby to take a picture of us. So, I took a selfie of us!!! And promised to give him business next time I am in town.
This is the MBA student’s fourth quadrant version of Dancing with the Stars 🙂
My siblings are such great fans of dogs (and kids, btw) that they will buy street dogs biscuits (cookies) every time we have tea at the roadside stalls. Here you can see my sister playing with a street dog near the temple that we took our dad to.
The dog seems to be getting its groove on and enjoying the dance with my sister as another dog waits for its turn 🙂
Waiting at DC airport, I called up mom to let her know we have reached US safely. I was expecting her to talk about all the fun we had while I was there – all the trips – or maybe give an update about my dad or might be even ask about my flights.
But no!
The first thing she said in a remorseful voice moment I said “Hello”, was “Issshhh! chholar daal khaona holo na ebar”. (She forgot to cook a particular dish for me!!!)
Not sure of all moms – certainly all Bengali moms think that way!!
There is a snippet from an old Bengali poem which is very appropriate..
“….. hey mugdho jononi
Rekhecho Bangali korey; manush koroni” !!!!
But I am sure I speak for all Bengalis when I say we will not have it any other way!!!
There is this young guy – you can see him in the picture – who I see at times downstairs in the building that my dad lives in Kalyani. My sister had mentioned that he is the security guy during night time. His shift starts from 11 PM to 6 AM. Which is why I do not see him that often when I am at my dad’s place.
But in the past, he has helped me a couple of times. Most of the times, he took pictures of my brother and myself after the early morning run as we stretched in front of the building. This time, my curiosity got the better of me. He is a very young and very likable person. I wanted to hear his story.
So, on Friday, I went down early – around 5am. Dad was still sleeping. And we were not going to run since we were to head out to Kolkata in the morning. My brother and I offered him a cup of tea and started getting to know him.
We hit it off very well straightway for two reasons. His name is also Rajib and his hair has been thinning out rapidly at a very early age too 🙂 The rest of the story was pretty humbling. I do not think the story is any different from millions of other families in India or for that matter in America. But getting to know somebody who lives that life is always a setter of perspective. I wish my daughters were around that day just to appreciate how blessed we have been.
My first question was why was he working as a guard instead of studying. We got to know that he is indeed doing both. He is doing his undergraduate in Arts (that would be English, History and Political Science in India). He is preparing for his first year exams. So, that would make him around 19-20 years, as I reckoned. Fortunately, in India, basic education can be much cheaper (even on a relative basis) than America. So, he is not working to put himself thru school. He has to do it to support his family.
Found out that his dad sells fish in the market. His mom is the maid servant in the flat (apartment) right opposite to my dad’s. He is the eldest of four siblings. And to support the family, as an eldest son, he is working during night to make some money.
I asked him about how did he manage his sleep what with college and working at night. Found out that while there are some days he gets no sleep, most days he can will himself to sleep for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours late evening regardless of the weather and sound level. And then he often utilizes the boredom of sitting in a place at night to finish off his studies.
So, I asked him, what would he like to do when he grew up. “Be a teacher”, he was very sure. I asked him why? That is not necessarily the most high paying job that he can go after. He talked about a few teachers in his school that had inspired him and he apparently always wanted to be like them. And then he said something that my brother and I later discussed at length on our drive back to Kolkata. He said “More than money, I want respect”. I could not think of a better tribute to teachers worldwide.
Such a nice, soft spoken person. So determined to make something out of himself. I have little doubt someday he will be a great teacher.
In a reversal of roles, my brother then took a picture of him with myself!
