To share a slightly less deep blog post, and to keep your interest going, let me tell you about October 20th. The day I was proposed to by a Indian travel guide. My host family and I had walked up this beautiful mountain in Humpi, Karnatika, called Ajani, said to be the birthplace of the monkey God Hanuman. It is said that this mountain is the birthplace of faith and devotion. There are 575 steps, so after about 40 minutes when we finally reached the top, sweaty and all, we were overjoyed. I took my host sisters hand and we ran to the edge of the mountain to see the beautiful view. My family asked a travel guide about the temple and it’s history, but before he answered any of their questions he asked me, “Are you married?” I said no. After looking at my host sister he said, “Is this your daughter?” I said no. He said, “Tikke, Tikke…” (Okay, Okay..) “Would you like to be married?”
I was the most proud of my Hindi language skills on that day. I turned him down saying, “Nahin dhanyavaad. Main chaahoonga, lekin jab tak ki mokee devata khud mujhase poochhen nahin…” translating to… “No thank you. i would like to, but not until the Monkey god himself asks me.”
This experience was a sweet reminder to myself… that even in India… I still got it.
