Law, Partially

Amand, my shoe-shining friend who I bought the box for, reappeared in my life today. I was supposed to meet him last week, but I was sick, and I never had the ambition to make it over to Linking Rd., and then I went to Goa. It’s a pretty big hassle for me to get to Linking Rd. after work because after work I have to come home and work on writing my blog and writing for Jurist. Plus, I usually stay at work for 10 or 11 hours. I wasn’t sure if Amand would still be at Linking Rd. He’s supposed to start shining shoes at a train station. But I went there today, and there he was at McDonalds. He saw me, and he was real excited to see me. He wasn’t doing very well. He said he hadn’t been making much money since the rains have started so heavily. He said no one wants their shoes shined on Linking Rd. in the rain, but they would want their shoes shined in a train station. He said he got his license from the railway company, but now he needed the blue shirt. Blue pants and blue shirts are the un...

Maybe the monsoon’s not here. It didn’t rain today, but I did go to a slum wedding. I bestowed a bunch of bananas on the two grooms who were riding through the market district on horses. The grooms were 19 and 17 years old. Yesterday in writing I called the box maker Babapul, but his name is actually Babalu. His younger brothers were getting married. Babalu said he would get married after the monsoon. There was a riotous party marching down the street. Young people filled the streets dancing, and the only music was some heavy, hard drum pounding. Prof. Rama told me at the Tamil wedding that the drums during the wedding keep out the bad spirits. This is the two brothers riding down the street on horseback. They raised their veils for me to take their picture. Their wives-to-be were waiting for them at home where later tonight they’ll walk around a fire seven times, and everyone will continue partying until 5a.m. I could have taken so many pictures here, and I hope the blurriness of thes...

Vicky, loyal readers might remember, shines and cleans shoes on Linking Road, which is not far from my house. A rickshaw ride there costs about $.25, which is the starting rate for all rides. Vicky wasn’t there, but I met a guy who claimed to be his brother. Amand was his name. I was scouting for Vickey when Amand came up to me and asked to clean my shoes. I could see he wasn’t Vicky, so I ignored him. Being a white guy on the street, I am constantly accosted by anybody. Women and children begging, guys selling anything, people wanting me to come to their shops. Rickshaw drivers consistently pull up next to me thinking that just because I’m white I’ll need a ride. So when this unknown shoe cleaner guy started talking to me, I ignored him. I’m always ignoring people because I hate being singled out for being I’m white. I’m more comfortable shopping when I’m not accosted by salesmen. I hate high-pressure sales tactics and feeling forced into anything. A reason to not go to strip clubs, I...