Want an ice-cream?

by Marcelo Spolidoro (Brazil)

Making a local connection India

Once I was told that one of the most comfortable ways to travel around India was hiring a driver. The prices were higher than traveling by train, of course, but it was worth it and I decided to experience a bit of my trip by the window of my car. The country is famous for the servant people, which is mostly made by Indus, who believes that if you're nice and do good, you can reincarnate as a cow or a rat, animals that are considered gods in their religion. When I landed in Agra I met Pawan and he was respective, quiet, always smiling, but absent, not there, what is considered a standard and positive way to deal with tourists. Not for me. At first, the comfort of the car was good enough for me not to care about the silence that was broken only by the traffic, the loud music and the commerce outside. The first words exchanged between us were about the weather and how the plane food was terrible. We arrived at the hotel at 11 pm and I was on the phone complaining about how exhausted I was, and how it would be bad to sleep for just 5 hours before waking up and leaving the hotel early to watch the sunrise. At 5:30 he was there, smiling - “Good morning, sir” - and I was shocked to see how it looked like he was there the whole time, waiting for me. Same clothes, same hair. On our way to the Taj Mahal, I realized how the silence would stay there for the next days if I didn't break it. So I started to talk to him about how my room view was good but polluted since the air there wasn't that good and he answered me with just a few words. We spent the next few days with me talking about the tasty food, how people dressed colorfully, how the cows were worshipped even when they were lying in the middle of the road causing more traffic. On the fourth day, we started a road trip that would take us 9 hours. As usual, I sat in the back seat and after a small chat, I started taking pictures through the window of the car. With 9 hours of driving, we would take two stops to go to the bathroom and eat. First stop, we were in the middle of nowhere and I had an ice-cream to not have a bad food reaction since I wasn't used to the spicy Indian food that came with the great smell of seasonings. While having my ice-cream I was observing Pawan as he left a backdoor of the building and I asked him where he was. He told me he was eating and that the drivers ate at a different place, where they could rest, sleep or eat. I was surprised that they have a different place to be and I asked if he wanted an ice-cream - "No, thanks, sir”. When I was paying for the small stone elephant that I bought for prosperity, I decide to buy Pawan an ice-cream anyways. I think we broke the ice with the ice-cream. He loved it. I sat in the front seat and we started a long conversation that lasted the next 5 hours. The days kept going and we kept traveling from Delhi to Pushkar, from Meena Baazar to ChandniChowk, from talk to talk, we created a nice and respectful connection where we felt free to be ourselves, and speak our own language, English, Hindi, Portuguese and the language of two different people realizing they have much more in common besides their different realities. There was the last day and I was sad to leave India, this country that gives you inner energy and takes it back in the most beautiful way. I was also sad to leave Pawan. At the airport, I gave him an envelope with a small amount of money that would help him buy his cow to produce cheese and milk for his family and he left the car to help me with my luggage. We hugged - "Goodbye sir" - I said - "Goodbye my friend" said Pawan.