Hamming It Up, in Jaipur
We went to Rajasthan, when the lockdown was eased, and after wandering around some, we reached a place from where we could see the Island palace of Jal Mahal, in Jaipur. The place, like many others, survives on tourists, and now that they are few and far between, everything looks dull, dismal, and empty. We reach this place and there are horses, camels, and costumes on hire, in case anyone feels like having his or her photo taken.
Then the man I live with, decides, for some strange inscrutable reason, that he wants to dress in the costume of the place, sit astride a horse, with a drawn sword, and pretend to be someone else. Quite Freudian, and I could analyse this several ways: but at that point in time, I am trying my best to pretend that I don’t know him. Tourists are in short supply in the place, and the teenaged ‘guides’ hiring out these costumes are convinced that I would wish to dress up and sit astride another skittish horse.
“Madam, Madam,” they carol, approaching me, as I am desperately trying to make sure the man doesn’t fall off his horse. “Wait,” I tell them, distractedly, though I have no intention of wearing the suspiciously smelly clothes. After the ‘shoot’ he was helped down from the horse, and I breathed more easily. The ‘guides’ clustered around me in a body, exhorting me to wear the clothes and be photographed.
In the middle of haggling with the photographer, and the horse owner for rates and prices ( he is born and brought up in Mumbai, and the idea of bargaining gives him a ‘high’), he became aware of these kids clustered around me. In two strides, he had reached my side, and demanded, “What are you asking her to dress up for? Is this your wife or my wife?” I had never seen a group of youthful guides extinguished so quickly.
They scurried back to the safety of their makeshift shop and regarded the gentleman fearfully. Having made his point, he ambled back, cheerfully, and resumed bargaining. Warily, they agreed to everything he suggested, and we got back into the tourist car, me trying to stop giggling, and he, grinning with unimpaired good humour. The taxi driver, who had seen and heard the exchange was grinning all the way back to the hotel.
The gentleman loves acting. A ham actor, but an actor nevertheless.
