Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rice paddy when the pained yodel of desperately worn brake pads
pierced the air. The carrier swerved in several drastic loops, narrowly
avoiding both ditches, and finally skidded to a halt not ten feet away.
Emblazoned across its floral-patterned portico on a roof in fanciful
script was the legend START EARLY DRIVE SLOWLY REACH
ON TIME. Gandhi had probably once said it.
Ten men, all identically dressed in pyjama-striped shorts, tattered
urine-coloured undershirts, pubescent moustaches, tea towels
wrapped like turbans, beedies in mouths, no shoes, jumped out,
babbling in one of India's 845 dialects. They were all small, with
the bodies of twelve-year-old boys.
'Esther's scared,' shouted David. 'Are we safe?' I was getting a
little sick of Esther.
'They say they'll spare us if they can take the Feringhee girl with
them,' I shouted back. 'I told them no problem. OK?'
I heard something that sounded like
schmuck!
By now one twelve-year-old had shot under our car, beedie still
fuming between his betel-stained incisors. I stooped to watch. Like
an ironpumper, he raised the driveshaft and, after moving it to and
fro, suddenly smashed it upward, sliding around to give it a further
mighty kick with his bare foot.
'
Braaabrakkalladdamannaticrdlinnam
,' he urged the driver.
I doubted that this was how driveshafts that had fallen out should
be replaced. But the driver regained his seat, starting up the car. I
heard gears engage again, and the vehicle lurched forward . . . then
stalled. Bending down, the driver reappeared with the rock I'd placed
over the brake pedal. He hurled it through the window, turning the
ignition key again. This time the car moved forward with no trouble,
stopping only when it reached the public carrier's bumper. The
driver was smiling.
I thanked the little men profusely. They all grinned, looking the
Westerners over with fascination. Then I asked the driver how much
I should pay them.
'These are very poor mens,' he said. 'They are not needing money.'
I gave the man who'd fixed the shaft a hundred rupees, then,
seeing the looks of yearning on the faces of his colleagues, handed
over another hundred, indicating that this was to be shared among
