On a Monday morning, when you’re running late, the last thing you want is for your cabbie to pull over on the side to talk on his phone... that too VERY loudly when you are barely awake. That’s how I began my week.
The cabbie took about five minutes to finish his call…the five minutes seemed forever…impatience does turn us into unreasonable people… at the time I didn’t really appreciate the fact that at least he parked on the side to talk on his phone… unlike so many of us who talk on our mobile phones while driving with a single hand. But my repent for my impatience apart, here’s what caught my attention abut the cabbie, or rather his talk.
Towards the end of his call, the cabbie put his phone on loud speaker, put the phone in his lap, folded his hands and screamed into his phone… ‘Maa Ji hum aapko haath jod kar pranam kar rahe hai. Aap aashirwaad dijiye, rakhte hai abhi.’ Then with a broad smile he hung up and restarted our yellow black.
The thing that surprised me, got me thinking was his gesture of folding hands. I started wondering when was the last time I saw someone do that besides on TV (and usually in advertisements only). I mean it’s such an Indian thing right? The Namaste or the Vannekam (pardon the spelling) or even a thank you… didn’t we always see our mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents always folding hands to greet or express gratitude? In fact when was the last time I folded my hands in a Namaste? I remember.
It was when I was meeting a colleague’s mother almost a year ago. I was meeting the elderly lady for the first time and out of habit I folded my hands to say ‘Namaste Auntie.’ The elderly lady didn’t respond back with a Namaste. She instead said, ‘Hi love.’ At that moment I felt ancient. Since then, sub consciously I’ve been thinking that its no more cool to do the Indian thing of folding hands to greet elders so I have switched to ‘hello uncle, hello auntie’ too. And what’s probably encouraging/disturbing is that older generations don’t mind at all! In fact they are far more ‘cool’ in their greetings than you can imagine.
As I debated whether I should switch back to doing what mommy taught me (frankly I think I’m a sucker for Indian tradition, I like the folded hands and the touching of the feet) my cab ride almost came to an end. While paying the cabbie I asked him a question. ‘aapki favourite heroine kaun hai?’… without any delay came the answer I was expecting. ‘Aishwarya Rai.’ The girl who wears a saree at the Cannes red carpet and folds her hands in a namaste for every photo-op is the girl, even the cabbie wants to drive home.
