Towards the end of our India trip, it must have been some sort of special school holiday week, because we started running into large school groups at all the museums and monuments we went to. While this is less than ideal at a huge national museum with many classical works of art and long captions, it was also fun to watch the kids - either all girls or all boys, and all dressed in matching uniforms, caper around on a field trip. We also ran into them at the Delhi gate, Amritsari Golden Temple, the craft museum in Delhi, and Hamayun's Tomb.
At the places we ran into female students, I experienced something interesting - the girls - especially 10-14 year old ones, were fascinated with me. They couldn't stop staring, giggling, laughing madly, whispering to each other, and then, inevitably, a brave one from a group would stop forward and introduce herself with palm thrust outward for a shake. At first I thought it was the two of us, but when Max walked away from me to take video, it became apparent that I was the fascinating one. I'm not sure why…I don't even attract that much attention in China! …and we were in large cities where they should be used to seeing foreigners, so it was strange. At the craft museum, a large pack of them started following me around the bazaars, stopping to look at what I inspected and generally just being close behind me. Max thought it was hilarious of course, and I'm sure it was funny to watch, but it was a bit uncomfortable - I didn't know what to say or do, and they weren't exactly being rude or pushy so I didn't want to tell them to go away or be rude to them. Several times I tried to talk to them after they introduced themselves, which seemed to make them very flustered, blush, run away, or freeze in place. It seemed like for the most part their English was not very good, which surprised me as well since English is the official language of India, but perhaps it was just the moment that overwhelmed them. Anyone have any idea what caused this phenomenon?
Hah! I have no idea. Perhaps because of your long hair??
ReplyDeleteHmm, sounds interesting. You're famous!
ReplyDeleteIf it's a school group from more rural areas, then most likely, these kids haven't directly interacted with white folks before. Did you get asked to be in pictures with random Indians? My blonde friend who visited was like a costume-less Mickey Mouse in her appeal. Also, how could you come to Delhi and not tell me?!
ReplyDeleteSorry sorry...my boyfriend wanted it to be a couple-only vacation...
ReplyDelete