Ganesh, the remover of all obstacles
Sunny was my rickshaw today. He was the guy that wanted it most when I stepped into a crowd of drivers and asked for the lowest bid back to Ram Nagar. Indians don’t respond the way I would expect a crowd of New York cabbies to respond. They usually look puzzled at bidding for business. Which isn’t a bad thing just one of those occasions to remind me I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Anyway, Sunny stepped up and gave a decent bid and most of the other drivers just walked away. I jumped into his rickshaw which had a prominent image of Ganesh, the remover of all obstacles, on the front window and off we went towards Connaught Circus a bit slower than usual for a rickshaw but something I am learning to appreciate in older drivers.
About halfway there, Sunny pulled over and asked if he could do an errand. I figured it was ok as I was staying with the rickshaw. After a few moments Sunny was back. Carrying nothing, offering no clue as to his
whereabouts , the mystery intact as he started up the rig again.
Sunny looked up at the rearview mirrow and asked “are you married?”
As usual with most rickshaws, I supposed he was trying to find some common ground before he hit me up for the more extended full tour of Delhi.
“No” I yelled over traffic, lots of traffic.
“Why not?” sunny turned around and looked at me with a puzzled look.
I shrugged my shoulders and quickly turned the dialogue back to him.
“Are you married?”
This was beginning to feel a bit like a conversation with a churchlady from Arkansas until I realized he was actually sizing up my accomplishments as a man.
“Yes! I have 4 children and two wives. One with my children the other with the sexy.”
I smiled back at him in the mirror and realized we had struck some sort of equalibrium between his status as a man of family and his perception of me as a monied person yet with no family of my own.
When we arrived at the hotel I tipped Sunny handsomely and took a photo of him next to his yellow and green rickshaw. He was smiling ear to ear.