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Archive for January, 2013
It was the end of the hot season in June 2010 and I was exhausted after a day of last-minute shopping and haggling in the dry Delhi heat. A man sitting in a plastic chair asked me for a minute of my time. I had seen him in the exact same place when I arrived six weeks earlier. It was a trap. It was my last day in India before returning home to the US, so I SHOULD have known better to fall into it, but I was weak and plopped down in the seat next to him.
“I’m not giving you any money.” I declared.
“I just want to look at your hand.” He insisted. After a few questions he scribbled some numbers on a small piece of paper. “Yes. Long life. Happy life. Ve’ddy happy. Good love. Ve’ddy good love.” he paused and released my hand “You have good heart, but you are too hard on yourself.” I faked a smile.
“Sure, a nice generic answer that anyone wants to hear.” I told myself.
“You want to know when you be back in India?”
“Yeah.” I tried to withhold my curiosity/excitement.
“You be back- 2012,” I looked up at him and met his eyes “with your man!”
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We arrived in Trivandrum at 3 a.m. on December 12. The airport was packed, but we managed to get all our luggage and find our way to Kovalam Beach area about 30 kms away. Our newest FBR member, Steve Black, was coming in the next day, and so we decided we’d hang out here for a week and all get adjusted a bit to India before taking off.
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