After spending some time in central mall, I went towards the
nearest metro station. I inquired about my destination station and boarded into
metro. After having a 20 minutes metro ride, I started walking towards my next
destination. My next destination was on walking distance from metro station as
per GPS. Luckily I found a local guy who knew English. He helped me and
directed towards the most probable direction.
After walking for more than 5
minutes, I thought of asking someone, but did not get much help as most of the
people were either tourists or non-English speaking. Suddenly I found a shop
with the name written Bollywood on it’s board. I entered into shop in hope of getting
some help and asked the guy at the counter, 'Can you please help me...'. And
the reply what I got was,'hanji, boliye kya madad ker sakta hun main aapki'. I
think the guy had been controlling his thrust of speaking in Hindi, so he
replied in Hindi even I asked him in English. He introduced himself as Kishan
from Banaras and gave a 30 seconds little introduction,' Panch bhai aaye they
hum yahan, bade bhai wapis chale gaye Banaras, baki hum yahan Barcelona me,
upper wale ki dua se sab badiya chal reha hai'. That introduction was enough to
tell me that he was not from Banaras, but just to make me feel comfortable, he
said Kishan and Banaras. But for a guy who was not sure of where the way
was heading towards and who entered into a shop just by looking at the
Bollywood sign board, that Banaras connection was not an important thing until he would get some help. Kishan bhai was really helpful; he dialed the hostel
number and came out of his shop just to show me the direction, 'Bus seedhe chalte jao, wo aage jake gali hai, hostels hain
wahan pe 1-2'. I thanked
Kishan bhai many times and he was just smiling,'koi baat ni ji'.
I headed towards the way which Kishan bhai showed me, but
for my surprise soon found traffic lights exploring 4 different directions. I was looking for someone who can guide me and then thought of asking a young
couple, who was just passing by me. The guy didn't help much, but girl understood English in bits and pieces.
The girl pointed me towards another direction which was completely different
than what Kishan bhai mentioned. I started walking towards the direction and
stopped in front of a store.
I entered into store to get a water bottle and asked
the lady sitting at the counter,'can I get 1 water bottle, please?'. My
attempt of sophistication went into vein, when I get reply,'Aap, Pakistan se?'
For a fraction of second, I thought whether water bottle is a code for
something else which I used by mistake. 'Nahin Hindustan se', I was trying to
control my laugh somewhere after using that heavyweight reference 'Hindustan se'. The very next moment she offered a coke can and said,'thak gaye
honge, pi lijiye' and my reply was too much pragmatic,'thanks, bus paani kafi hai'. In reply she opened the coke can and offered me and I again thanked
her for the hospitality. 'Hindustan me kahan se?' lady said. 'Dilli
se'...achha...'main ye address dhund reha hun,aapko pata hai'. The lady
asked the helper in the store, who knew the address in bits and pieces and was
very confident that he would find out the hostel. I asked for the bill and the
lady started smiling,'koi ni, ho gaya', but after my so much insist she
accepted bill from me.
Finally the helper guy’s Spanish, which he learned in that shop only, worked and I was at the reception of hostel. Kishan bhai was right, it was straight from his shop but the road, which was slanting at more than 30 degree angle, was creating confusion. 'koi sa bhi saman chahiye hoga, khana kuch bhi bus phone ker dena ', Fakhruddin said. Hola...hello...'so you are here to attend the marriage', the receptionist girl said. 'You are the third person, who asked me this marriage thing today, what is that?'. 'Ohh, you don't know, see here...it's a millionaire family from India', she said while pointing out to the monitor screen. 'Ok', I said with smile. Finally I took my room keys, had a shower and was ready to go out again. After wandering for another 3 hrs, I had a sleep.
Finally the helper guy’s Spanish, which he learned in that shop only, worked and I was at the reception of hostel. Kishan bhai was right, it was straight from his shop but the road, which was slanting at more than 30 degree angle, was creating confusion. 'koi sa bhi saman chahiye hoga, khana kuch bhi bus phone ker dena ', Fakhruddin said. Hola...hello...'so you are here to attend the marriage', the receptionist girl said. 'You are the third person, who asked me this marriage thing today, what is that?'. 'Ohh, you don't know, see here...it's a millionaire family from India', she said while pointing out to the monitor screen. 'Ok', I said with smile. Finally I took my room keys, had a shower and was ready to go out again. After wandering for another 3 hrs, I had a sleep.
Next day after visiting Park Guell, I packed my bag and came
to the store again. The lady was sitting at the counter, 'hello', I said. 'Aadaab',
she said. 'Achha biscuits, cookies honge', I said. 'cookies jyada ache nahin
hain, aap biscuits dekh lo, whan hain', she said. I picked up biscuits, water
bottle and fruit juice. 'Kitna hua?' I said. She tagged discounted price for
me,'aapke liye bus itna'. I paid my bill.
'Achha to fir chalta hun', I said. 'Ok, aate rehna fir, koi
aur madad chahiye hogi batana', she said. 'Main ghoomne aaya tha, wapis jaa reha hun', I said. 'Kahan Dilli...mujhe laga aap padte ho yahan, kafi students
aate hain yahan padhne', she said. 'Nahin...main France aaya tha, office ke
kaam se... to do din ke liye yahan ghoomne aa gaya, wapis France jana hai', I
said.
'Ohho...achha, chalo fir, Allah Hafiz...'she said.
'Allah Hafiz...' I smiled...tightened my grip on bag and started moving towards
another destination...
