Monday November 29, 2004, 2:19pm

Derek had a rare day off yesterday, so we went off to adventure around the city. We started by heading for a man-made lake, or tank or... I dunno, we never got to it. Derek's been there before though, and apparently it's the place that everyone was taking their Ganesh statues recently and dumping them in the water, according to the traditional celebration that was taking place at the time. On our way I spotted a little altar down a lane and suggested that we go have a look. I'm a big fan of lanes & alleys, and this one proved to be a fine example, and as even in Vancouver, offered an interesting look into the local community life that one doesn't often get from the front. Anyway, just as we got to the end of a long straight stretch and were going to hang a left, some older gents harkened us over to find out where we were from, etc. We entertained them by answering some questions in response to almost unintelligible questions - they spoke less than a half-dozen english words, and we speak about the same of Hindi. As it turned out one of them had been drinking, and was quite hammered. Through a series of non-communications he indicated that he wanted to know where we were going, and through more non-communications we indicated god only knows what. After 5 - 10 minutes of this sort of thing a large crowd had gathered: some ~20 kids, teens, men & women... Well it felt like a large crowd in the confines of the rather small lane we were in. You see, here in Nagpur there are apparently almost NO non-indians ever, and so we become a very huge source of curiosity. Things were getting a little out of hand so we decided we'd best graciously bid them all adieu, and take off. Easier said than done, we wound up being followed and... harrassed, pestered, I dunno what the term would be, but suffice it to say that most of the crowd went with us including the drunkard. Crowds beget crowds. We got back on the main road, but after another 10 minutes of walking it became clear that things were not going to improve on their own. The drunk fellow would ride his bike 100' ahead and stop and wait and when we caught up would go on and on about something we couldn't understand at all. Doctor something, hands over eyes something, 'no no' something, don't go something, dead body something, an indication to follow him the way we were already going... and of course all the kids were still all around us, and more people would come over to see what the commotion was.

We decided at that point to turn around and head for home as things only seemed to be getting more crazy, and we really just wanted to be left alone. After walking back home for 10 minutes much of the crowd had drifted away, tho there were still some waiting further ahead, and behind and slowly keeping up. Some kids approached again and indicated that there were a couple of men that were going to follow us home, and another kid, a young girl, who seemed to be saying that her uncle would like us to visit his house, and we should head over there. We finally hopped into a motor-rickshaw in order to outrun them all, which we did.

They had all been friendly enough, but... as I said later, a swarm of friendly people is still a swarm.

After a while we hopped out of the rickshaw and continued on our way. We headed to a very busy shopping area... many long streets of shops spilling out onto the road, and tons of people milling around doing their thing. We made our way down to the end of the 'shopping area' to where there were some key-cutters, and got a couple spare keys cut for Derek. (They turned out not to work.) Then we went off wandering around and seeing the sights. I spotted a large stadium, and upon seeing that the gate was open, suggested that we go in and check in out. Derek was a little wary I think, what with the success of my earlier bright idea, but this turned out to be much more pleasant, and offered some great views of the surrounding areas from the top of the bleachers. Down below on the field were groups playing football (soccer), cricket, and a few people jogging around. Having had our fun there we went on to a tasty dinner, a shopping mall, and then caught another rickshaw home. All good.

Now I'm starting to wonder what to do next. Derek is leaving Nagpur soon to meet his g/f in Mumbai (Bombay), and then they're going to want some time alone, so I've got to come up with something to do until ~Dec 20 when I plan to hit Delhi again to meet my old Punjabi teacher who's invited me to a week-long Sikh wedding to take place there in Delhi, and then head north to the Punjab with her after that.

We'll see... hmmmm... India... what to do...

dharma