Travel to Bihar
Uma’s post about her driver NP’s journey back to Bihar by air is a very powerful and moving account of poor man’s travel to the world that he daily serves but rarely enters. What makes Uma’s record of events especially affecting is the way in which it builds on other events in the past, each of which in their own way excite empathy:
But NP has other concerns. “Flight mein koi kuch bolenge?” he asks uncertainly. Will someone say something to me in the flight? And then, with touching confidence: “Aapka card leke jaoonga.” I will carry your card. “Paani ka botal allowed karenge?” Will they let me take a waterbottle?
In the moving car I begin to write down for him, in tenth-standard Hindi – the first useful thing I have done with all those years of study of the language – what he should do at the airport. Starting with showing the tickets at the gate in order to get in. Then go inside, go to the Sahara counter. They will check your tickets and give you boarding cards with your seat numbers on them.
I am used to this systematic break-up of procedures into manageable steps. I have done it before, for very old and very young people. This time, I write the English words in Hindi script. Remember to put tags on your bags. You’ll get the tags at the counter. Then ask someone for Security Check and go there. Put your bags on the x-ray belt. Remember to take the bags when you are on the other side. Then wait for the flight announcement. Don’t miss the flight…
Once you get into the flight, find your seats and wear the seat-belts.
Photo above by Werner Bischof who visited the old Bihar, the Bihar of the fifties.
That’s a nice post. I went over to Uma’s post and it is rather long. At a glance looked interesting and I’ll read it later. But I thought I should come back here and say that I’ll look at our Somaiah very differently when he comes to pick me up tomorrow.
Comment by Shashikiran — July 18, 2006 @ 10:16 am