Sarukh and Abdul in Varanasi

Sarukh and Abdul arrived the week I was going to leave and I was very happy to see them. Nandan’s father had a problem with Sarukh because he did not have legal ID, so I suggested that I would put them in a hotel. Nandan’s father wanted me to stay inside the house because he did not want me to feel pressure about the two needing to leave, so I told him I would and then every night everyone conspired to get me out of the house without him knowing. It was more of a polite gesture not to talk about the trouble. In this case the problem was that everyone in every guesthouse has to have identification to stay there, and the concern is preventing terrorism. Nandan and family did not pay much in bribes to register the guesthouse so they have to follow the law to the cultural standard.

I met them every day and we had a lot of fun. Being with them both and Sarukh in particular was definitely one the highlights to my trip to India – I was pretty smitten with Sarukh. We went to the typical tourist sites like the Kashi Vishwanath and took a boat ride and walked the alleys. Before they left we went to Nandlal Master’s group wedding of about 50 couples, and they both enjoyed that and got to flip urban attitude secretly to me over how the rural people marry at age 15. They also complained continually about Benares being dirty. Nandan says that Kolkata is extra dirty, and it is true that the diesel taxis there do thicken the air, but Benares does have an awful lot of human and animal corpses everywhere so I guess the debate could be settled by determining whether smoke or rotting fumes are more unpleasant.

Here is a video from that group wedding we attended.

I was preparing hard for the HIV vaccine conference at this time so I typically left Abdul and Sarukh alone during the day and only visited them in the mornings and stayed the night with them. I told them both to write me after they go and I told Sarukh to get an ID and for Abdul to meet up with the Dum Dum Society and get his wife and baby HIV tested so that he could get regular HIV treatment. We talked about NGO work and tourism every day and I appreciated that they had a lot of questions for me.

Sarukh laughs and jokes a lot. After they had been in a few days I transferred them to a better hotel room and when we were there Sarukh put on some music channel and started singing the words to every song. He had a gumcha, which the thin cloth that India people use as a travel towel, head covering, and for probably other things. He started wearing this orange gumcha to look like the people in the music videos, and doing dance along with it. At first he did male roles, then he did female roles, and then he turned it into a strip tease. He continually took off his clothes and then after more than an hour he was finally nude and the whole experience was one of the hottest things in which I have ever participated.

Abdul was not engrossed like I was but he tolerated it well. Having him around made me feel a lot more safe with Sarukh, because I felt like he was safer in Benares not coming alone and I was safer because I was also establishing a friendship with one of his friends, so conversation among us was a lot more fluid.

Nandan never trusted Sarukh and told me to be careful around him. There are a lot of factors at play here but I appreciate that Nandan supported my interest in them. Among the reasons Nandan did not like him are the following: his lower class standing, lack of education, his job is to sell things to foreigners.

There was also an issue with some money being missing from my room. Nandan hired this guy to come install an air conditioner. I found the guy in my room checking the room out by himself, and in India as anywhere else it is a cultural taboo to enter someone’s bedroom unescorted. I cannot prove anything, but I think he took my money sitting out, about $40. Nandan said that Sarukh took it, and that I am mistaken about when the guy was in my room, which could be the case because I am generally confused. Both options are unpleasant, and I certainly do not understand Kolkata street kid psychology, but despite Sarukh working in an profession which typically involves never seeing clients a second time I never believed that he would touch my money. The loss did not matter to me; I told Sarukh what was up. He denied anything and dropped the issue after I told him that I took his side completely, which was my most reasonable option regardless of what I might have believed. Nandan said that he had cleaned my room before the guy arrived on that day, but in any case, this incident should color both my and Nandan’s relationship with Sarukh in the future, should I stay in touch with him as I would like to do.

Sarukh works a manufacturing job, but his interest in culture and community would make him good for more intellectual jobs if he wanted them, and I think the world would be a better place with someone bright and polite like him in a more social position.