If you don't like India.... wait a minute, it will change

I've been having some thoughts recently that maybe I've done my stint in India - I'm not getting as excited by it as I used to. And this morning India won. I was on my way to get a manicure/pedicure (I know, tough life) and when Satender pulled over to let me out some car thought they could fit between our car and the other parked ones in the parking lot and they were wrong. I'm surprised they even got through, they seemed stuck. But they scratched up the side of the car and broke off the side mirror. And then tried to drive away! So Satender ran after them. I guess he wanted to move the car out of the way and was afraid they'd leave so he took their keys! The lady in the other car (not the driver) came over and started pounding on my car and saying how could we pull over and why didn't we flip the mirror out of the way (there wouldn't even been time to roll down the window).

Anyways, I hate when I lose my cool and hate even more when I play the "don't mess with me I'm a foreigner" card. Doesn't feel good.

But then, as India always does, it served up the opposite. My guard Jagdesh has been asking me to come to his home for a while and we finally did it today. I don't actually employ Jagdesh, my company does, and I really don't know anything about him except that he had a baby girl 6 months ago. So I went to his house, which is one room about twice the size of his guard booth. Apparently there is a bathroom somewhere in the building too. It had a single cot, a little shelf for clothes and an area to cook (y'know spot on ground where they use natural gas to light a burner). I had given them a quilted baby blanket to celebrate the birth of their baby and that was in the middle of the floor where the baby was lying- I don't know if that was for my benefit or not. They have nothing. It's really striking - I mean in theory you know what to expect but it still is eye opening to actually see it.

He is from Rajasthan and got married at age 16, if I understood correctly. I brought Satender along to translate for me. His wife was much younger when they were married and only completed 5th grade. Thankfully he's now about 27 and his eldest boy is 3 so they waited a good long time before starting a family and are spacing their children well! The kids both look really healthy although they did say they wanted to send the boy to school but couldn't afford it. They had bought me bottled water, diet coke (per Satender's suggestion), chocolate cookies and potato chips! Ah, what everyone thinks American's like! It was really touching that they wanted to have me over. And a reminder of how luxurious my life is.