Alien Encounters!!

(the alien being me)

My favourite part about India are definitely the encounters I've had with the locals. So helpful, honest, generous, and almost always hilarious! The children are beautiful and smile back when I smile. Pretty much everyone loves to have their photos taken.

These children live deep in a valley of Pachmarhi. They followed us curiously through the one narrow path of their tiny village. These tattered little kids just are just awesome when they smile at you. I fell in love with all of them, so irresistible.

In the city, a lot of kids beg at the stop lights or along the lake shore. Those little ones are tough as hell and very manipulative. It's hard to look them in the eye because they are so gorgeous.

It usually men who work in shops and this one guy, after catching me and my camera by his everything-to-do-cars store, went ahead and posed for me. Despite his expression in this photo, this mister was all smiles and laughter.

After his photoshoot, he pointed to a gang of his friends on the side of the road, who were also ready for their turn! Before I knew it,I was standing on the side of a busy road, taking photos of everyone who took notice of me and wanted their faces remembered. I quickly realized that I was starting to attract a pretty big crowd and decided to be on my way.

While Katie, Phillip and I were roaming the markets of Pachmarhi, we were stopped a few times for photos by giddy groups of girls as if we were celebrities. But none of the frenzy compared to our encounter with Mr. Patel.

This man basically stopped us as we passed his convenience booth, inquired about our places of origin, and then gestured around the corner suggesting that we follow him. We came to a jewelery store. He began to rummage through a drawer for something, and at the same time, pointed towards another man who was sitting behind a low counter. "This is my brother, this is our store, this is my father's store, now it is my store."

Some more minutes of rummaging later, Mr. Patel finally revealed two photographs of him and his brother in the very store we were standing in. The two were in the same exact positions but one captured these men at a much younger age. "This is my brother, this is me, this is my store..." Ahhhh yes, an updated photo. Finally I understood what he wanted with us.

So I proceeded to take the same photo of the same store, with the now aged brothers standing exactly as they did in the photos previously taken.

The moment after I snapped this photo, Mr. Patel grabbed my arm and motioned Katie and Phil to follow. Quite forcefully, we were invited into the back of the store, which was their home. "My wife is inside, she is very fat. My daughter is sleeping, she is very lazy..." Mr. Patel introduced us to his entire family this way.

He then grabbed Katie and positioned her in the centre of the room, then Phil, then called out to his wife: "Jutty!" A chubby lady emerged. He positioned her next to Katie and Phil. "This is my wife, she is very fat." Then he went on to re-position Katie and Phil, "this is my new daughter, this is my new son." After what seemed to be forever, Mr. Patel had managed to compose a new family portrait. I happily snapped a photo. (Check out the monkey on the wall).

This was only the beginning. He was intent on getting a variety of groupings and poses in, all of them including Katie, Phil and I as his new son and daughters. We were like his puppets, positioned as he desired. Mr. Patel was one determined man.

I'm going to mail these to Mr. Patel, but I wish I could deliver them in person and see his reaction.