Vignettes of Friendship

Between the middle and the end of this month Danielle and Melody are departing India. I thought now would be a good time to present you with some vignettes of the times we spend together, so you can understand what it will mean when they leave.

I have never seen someone smile as often as Melody smiles. My often-dry humour, which would elicit only a smirk or chuckle in many, sends her bursting into laughter. She sings all the time. It’s nice to have another Canadian around. We’ve had fun sharing memories of the Great White North, and she’s been kind enough to teach me some Hindi. (She was in a different part of India for sixth months before she came here, so she picked up a bit.)

Danielle shares my interest in movies, which neither Melody nor the Mohajer family really watch. There’s a western style coffee shop called Café Coffee Day and we went there once to splurge on chocolate cake and other western goods. Melody and the Mohajer’s are essentially in love with India so it’s nice to have someone around who likes the western world too.

I’ve also made friendships to various degrees with the Indian youth here. Rohit’s nineteen years old and has a degree in hardware. We’ve had a lot of fun talking about computers and he’s teaching me a thing or two. It initially took me a while to understand his accent but he’s actually very good at English and making Melody and I laugh. The three of us have gone on some wonderful walks around Lucknow, down the busy streets, or through the smaller lanes. And next weekend he’s taking Melody and I to Varanassi on a sight seeing trip, where we’ll see the famous holy river, the Gangi and some temples.

I’m also friendly with a lot of the other youth, like Sumit, Nadeem and Ritu. Yesterday Rohit, Melody, Sumit, Nadeem and I completed Ruhi 7. I was riding on the back of the motorcycle, with Rohit driving. Nadeem and Melody were on one scooter, Sumit on another. Sometimes we were in the lead, sometimes it was one of them, as we weaved between the traffic and swerved round corners. The wind dashed against my face. We laughed and Sumit and I high-fived across the rushing, cracked pavement. It’s times like that that India rocks.