Red Monkey

Foreigners are stared at in India, “Somewhere in the five or more millennia of its history, the culture had decided to dispense with the casual, nonchalant glance….eye contact ranged from an ogling gaze to a gawping goggle-eyed glare.  There was nothing malicious in it.  The staring eyes…were innocent, curious, and almost always friendly.”  (SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts)

I love the way Greg Roberts sums it up…and he’s so dead-on accurate…!!!

I’m out and about in the city on my own now and I give them plenty to stare at.  First, there is not another redhead anywhere that I have seen since I arrived.  There are all shades of black, dark brown, light brown, blonde and grey, but absolutely no red hair (other than a few smatterings of a coated, unnatural looking henna head).  And, I’m the only one wearing sunglasses!  You’d think in such a sunny country everyone would be wearing shades, but here’s the thing – monkeys!!  The crafty little buggers are very adept at swooping down out of nowhere and swiping the glasses right off your face.  I was having dinner at a gentleman’s house last night, a native and long time resident of Vrindavan, who has had his glasses swiped three times!  Ambushed from behind in a vicious hit and run once, leaving him without a motorcycle helmet as well.  You’d think he’d know better.  Everywhere I go, the concerned citizens tell me to remove my sunglasses – I don’t.

So I am the redhead with sunglasses, and a camera, that’s walks around town photographing kids and colorful doorways.  “Oh, it’s only a matter of time,” they think, as they stare at me in passing, “until those sunglasses are gone.” 

...and reminds me of when I lived in New Delhi years ago, and walking home from school,  there were some neighborhood kids who would try to tease us with racial slurs calling us “lal bundar” …red monkey!  It didn’t bother us, but the phrase has stuck with me to this day, maybe as a prophetic warning…”Hey red!!  Watch out for the monkeys!!”

Let the monkeys take my sunglasses, but don’t mess with my camera…