When we say the people make a place, there isn’t a better, more thriving example than the people and places of India. Whichever part of the country it may be, you’ve definitely spotted something here in your lifetime that might’ve looked nothing out of the ordinary, yet been striking enough to leave an indelible mark on your memory.
One such moment I still think about, rolling about like a dice in my memory tunnel, is of a happy couple in Jaipur, having lunch together at the construction site they worked on. Now wait – allow me to a self-privilege check before I get into it – it wasn’t hard to concur that this particular couple was obviously not as privileged as I am or any of you reading this, this probably was a mundane moment in their everyday life of making ends meet that I was in fact intruding, and I recognise sitting out on a concrete footpath to eat is not something one would pick out of choice (on most days) or for comfort, and obviously, the last thing one would like, privileged or not, is for some random passerby (with then 15k followers) encroaching upon their privacy and turning their meal into content. I knew all of this, and yet, the beauty of it all wasn’t lost on me. It was the joy on their faces to have finally gotten a breather from work, to finally sit down and look at each other’s faces, to chat about all the things they’d been waiting to tell each other all morning. It was how they served each other before they took a bite off their own plates, it was the special way in which her eyes lit up in front of him, and the peacefulness of his smile as he looked upon her. The moment was all too sweet and inspiring, and I did take a picture of it with their permission of course, I did post it on my story, and I did then get called out for the same reasons mentioned above, and rightly so in a way – maybe these were the only few minutes in the day they got to enjoy each other’s company because they had kids and parents waiting for them in a cramped home, or maybe it wasn’t a sob story like we bougie beings are quick to assume; maybe every meal they shared even back home with their family looked like this, this happy – either way, all these years later, I can’t help but reminisce the innocence and the sheer joy they took in the fundamentals – food, love, togetherness. I still think about them warmly.
Today, I was privy to another beautiful meal moment between another beautiful couple while catching a rickshaw as you do in Bangalore (am I some sort of food voyeurist? don’t answer that). This couple cleared a little bit of the footpath and sat down on a plastic sheet they laid, then excitedly opened their packed meal from an Udupi nearby, their eyes feasting on the food and on one another. The energy was infectious as I passed by, and I found myself neither drawing my eyes away from them nor holding back my big smile – so much so that I had to come back for a chat. We chatted about what they did and where they got their meal and I gave my little confession of being an onlooker whose heart was now melted. Two people sharing a meal on the footpath in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the big city, just happy to have each other and some food. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple moment like that to remind ourselves that our needs are actually that simple… The couple pictured above is who I’m grateful to for that reminder 👆🏻
And I’m grateful to this country of mine for laying out all of its paradoxes, its ironies, and its many truths before me, for always surprising me with its incredible beauty and warmth, but also stumping me with its struggles and inequalities in the same breath. I can never get over the fact that the only thing keeping me and my privilege together was the fluke chance of being born to certain parents that the next person didn’t have – none of us earned or deserved any of this – and it’s the reason I’m still trying to make something out of my life in a way that doesn’t stem from privilege as much as I can help it (though the pushstart it gives you obviously can’t be ignored). Meanwhile, here’s hoping I chance upon many more serendipitous meals along the way that keep me believing in what truly matters – love.
