Today is Republic Day. It is customary to attend a social event at schools today. I told Abiji and Anuji that I would attend one of their’s at Lal Ghat, but when I got there I could not find the school and had forgotten Abiji’s number, and Anuji’s was not working for some reason.
So I went elsewhere for the day. There was just two days ago a Saraswati festival that involved a lot of dancing and music in parades.
I have met Nandan’s brother and father. His brother studies physics and is an enthusiast of yoga and Hindu religion. He claims to do religious activity for three hours a day, and that includes chanting various mantras hundreds or thousands of times. Nandan and his father seem to approve of this, although I do not think that either of them do this.
Nandan’s father, I think, will want to talk to me every night for about half an hour. I can understand his English but he likes to speak a lot of Hindi to teach me, but I am not at the point where I can understand enough for this to be useful. If he slowed down a bit I would be better.
I told Abiji about Nandan and he said, “Tell him that he may contact me.” Abiji was facing the back wall when he said this, and I got the impression that I was witnessing some kind of cultural mechanism for meeting strangers. It was the appropriate thing to say and I would very much like each one’s opinion of the other.
The reason for calling is that Nandan is to take some government test for a “Tour License” in April. This test is of “general knowledge” and English, and Abiji said that it would grant the bearer a fair salary and the richest clientele. Abiji said that he and his brother had this license, and that each renewed them yearly or biannually, but after passing it is for life. Abiji said that he was not fit for the most closely related job, though, because he was “more accustomed to giving tips than receiving them.”
Anuji told me that he worked as a tour guide and had two bad experiences. Once a British person would not pay him because he would not repeat the phrase, “The British are the Best.” Then this person threw a rock at him from the top of a hotel and Anuji had him arrested and deported. The other time an American took pictures of girls bathing in the Ganga, so Anu took his camera and destroyed the film. Later he wanted Anu to provide him with a girl, and that night when Anu had not done this he tried to force himself and money on a cook. He also was arrested.
I told Nandan what my teacher said and he said that he would go to school with me Monday. I told him that I would pass this along to my teacher. Nandan also invited me to his child’s second birthday, which is special. This is February 7 and will involve a special haircut and a trip to a family village some distance away.