Diary of Lisa Taylor, reluctantly 42 (and a half)

Or.. 'f.ck me I'm forty.. two.. and a half', though can look 38 on a - not so deluded - good day. Or 'How to reconcile a well experienced mind trapped in a still - but for how long? – youthful body.' Don't have the 30somethings angst/problems, neither have the resigned (?) ageing baby-boomers in safe family territory outlook yet. Here's how I cope, one day all sexy women will get old... but never invisible. © Lisa Taylor 2005/6/7/8/9. Jeez.. so much for the 42 and-a-half delusion

Sunday, November 20, 2011

20 November - Rita & Dill

Just a short story to illustrate how generous people are here (they are generous in lots of places elsewhere too, but never ceases to surprise me in people who have so much less than you).
so am in Mcleod ganji where the dalai lama in exile lives , ten km from Dharamshala and decided to take some Hindi lessons and do some yoga so i can approximate Toph level when he turns up.

Rita is 29 and has a toddler boy and a 3.5 year old girl and she teaches Hindi, she's good.
her husband, not sure how old he is but similar and he teaches yoga or rather at the moment he teaches people who want to achieve teacher level themselves, and one of his former students a swede called Erik teaches the classes. He's good but can't do handstand!

Rita told me she was going to Dharamshala to the market and did i want to go with as she had misunderstood that i wanted to buy a mobile phone but i didn't. . I said yes, off we went in a taxi for which she said we could share the cost, fine by me.

she was happy as finally husband had agreed she could buy a sawing machine, the machine , indian made, cost just short of 40 quid, and to put it into context the rent they pay for 1 month for the yoga studio which is nice and full of windows and the ONE room in which they live is 26 pounds. then we went to buy some fabric for a pound, for her to make pajamas for the kids or 'night suits' as she called them, she wants to practice on kids clothes before she tries on good fabric for herself. A neighbour will teach her. husband then went to buy vegetables . i said to Rita on way back that i wanted to buy something for the daughter, some trinkets as she'd been looking at my shiny watch. so we stop in a toy cum make up shop. Shagun , the daughter chooses some bracelets, and i was looking at a toy truck for Bittu, but Rita said it was too expensive, (2.50) and no, i should get him something cheaper so we settled on a plastic water bottle 'that he can use later when he will go to school' , that cost 1. and i got another wind up cheap toy and some hair bands.

As I was paying , on the counter were some displays of earrings i was picking up and looking at and Rita asked me if i liked 'these' i said yes, but they were 'expensive ' at 2.pounds (sorry no pound sign on this keyboard). they were childish shapes and colours anyway, and i was just looking because i look.....
i go sit in the car with kids and husband and she's taking her time to come out of the shop. when she does, she hands me the earrings i was looking at and said they're a gift from her.

I remonstrated and said you can't give me a gift because i got you one! but she wouldn't hear it.
I just think things like these make my day.

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