…. to be shown by Ashok yesterday an A3 sized photo of Sherry and I printed on glass and to be told that the photo was to hang in their bedroom once the house had been fully completed.
There have been some contradictions in what we understood Ashok to have told us on our first trip and what is in fact the position and perhaps that has been through miscommunication on his part or our misunderstanding of what he said.
Two that surprised us are the fact that his is a love marriage not an arranged one and that his girls would be able to choose life partners provided those chosen were acceptable to him and Gita.
He told us that Gita who comes from Jharkhand, a state 1200kms south east of Delhi moved to Delhi for work and it was there that she & Ashok met and the rest is history
In our time in Narnaul and the surrounding area we have not seen another non-Indian face and therefore it’s of no surprise that we are continually “stared” at, Sherry perhaps more so.
Another Hotel Dev breakfast, at least the coffee and curd was, but other offerings were left untouched particularly the papaya on the servery which was being visited by some cockroaches!!
Having had our credit card rejected at the saree shop we thought we should get some more cash on board so went out into the chaos to find an ATM; without luck.
The heat, even at 9.30 was quite oppressive so we returned to our room where I thought a Google for the nearest ATM might show a result and luckily I wasn’t wrong so it was back out to walk the 200m in another direction to a Punjabi Bank ATM and complete the transaction.
We decided to walk a different route back to the hotel, via a road behind the main road, and it wasn’t too long before we wished we hadn’t as apart from having to cross a very wet and muddy patch the rubbish on the way was extreme.
On the way to our room I checked with the receptionist to ascertain our account as we were booking out today and was surprised that we were charged extra for booking in between 12 & 1 pm on the first day rather than after 2pm and also if I paid by card there would be an additional 5% GST which wouldn’t apply if we paid with cash – one wonders if the Government knows this.
Out of curiosity I checked Google reviews for the hotel and everyone was complimentary of food, rooms and service whereas our rating would have been negative – as all the reviews bore Indian names it perhaps reflected the fact that their standards, given many Indians have not travelled out of India and not experienced anything different, weren’t as high as ours.
We then moved to Ashok’s house and wondered given what still needed to be done whether the room was indeed going to be completed by tonight.
The heat is too intense to go outside so for the afternoon hours you sit around indoors in front of an aircon and it seems to be during this time that the closeness that villagers have with each other is on display.
We were sitting alone in the main room and 2 older women and 2 youngsters came in and one proceeded to make a milk drink for the toddler. Not long later Ashok’s mother came in and joined the group and then a little later Gita came with the group making a nice photo and a while later an elder woman joined – they all made themselves at home, as if today was the day that they would all congregate in Gita’s home
Priya not to be outdone
Around 3.30 when the temperature had dropped (to 40) we decided to leave the ladies to themselves (the talk was incessant and loud and we needed a little “free time”) we decided to go for a walk out in the village.
Folk who were sitting in the homes looking out, all acknowledged us with a wave or Namaste as we idled along the lanes stopping in various areas of shade. Luckily we passed a shop, perhaps the only one in the village as we haven’t seen any others, and we stopped and purchased a large bottle of water which was a life saver – figuratively and perhaps literally.
Commonsense said turnaround and get back inside so we retraced our steps again acknowledging and being acknowledged by the locals. Nearing the end of the walk we passed a home and the gentleman greeted us with “hello how are you”, “fine thanks and how are you” “fine, come inside” so we did and meet Virender Singh, a Delhi policeman, a cousin of Ashok, and his family.
We were offered water and a glass of strawberry lassi. We chatted for a while, cricket was included in the conversation, even though making each other understood was a challenge before we took our leave in case Ashok or Gita were worried that we had succumbed to the heat.
While thanking them we were told that we were welcome and told to call again! As they would be attending the wedding so we will meet them again.
How many of us would invite an unknown couple who happened to be walking passed our home inside and offer them a drink? This seems to be the way in this community.
When it got slightly cooler we again went for a village walk but in a different direction to end the day and now more folk were out and about including these smiling gents and this grandma with a toddler
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