Firstborn

On The Road From Delhi to Khamosh Valley

                  

Hanging precariously out of her taxi window, with her bottom resting on the rolled down window and arms folded on the roof of the car, Una gawped, whooped  and was slapped back and forth with new senses of extremes. Her endorphin levels were high as she spun  on her hair raising ride, on the jam-packed and overwhelming merry-go-round called India. 

She pulled faces in the mirrored windows of tall glass showrooms sitting  starkly between crumbling one storey buildings and just avoided being hit by a pair of  buxom breast s on a  ten foot billboard of a Bollywood star  selling the latest swim wear, no – fruit juice.

Miles and miles of static, squatted human forms with no obvious purpose littered the road and puzzled Una. Where were the police to move them on? Back in Manchester the police targeted stationary groups of youths especially males ones. Even her trio of Luke, Charlotte - 'Charlie' and herself had been for a short visit to meet the constabulary at the 'Nick' after they had been reported to be 'aimlessly' standing near some empty warehouses.

Una perused the traffic. Her Toyota Land Cruiser taxi shared the carousel with a spectrum of bewildering vehicles.  For the last hour they were following a gaudy painted truck cheekily advising other vehicle drivers to expect to be sprayed with black fumes, if they dared to press their horns in frustration with its driver's road hogging tendencies. Una was tempted but remembered the sullen taxi driver's face. There were  rickshaws carrying unusual cargo, some with big bundles the width of a small car and one with a Samsung fridge ... she quickly dropped back into her seat.. .as it careered towards her Land Cruiser taxi door. Una squirmed and closed her eyes; she didn't have time to withdraw her arm hovering over the rim of her unwound window back into the car... Phew! The moment passed without incident, nonetheless she retracted her precariously placed appendage safely into the car's interior- it wasn't safe. Three- wheeler scooters past in all directions, even diagonally to make the point. 

And then the taxi came to a braking standstill.

"Holy Cow!" Una screamed. "Una, what did I say about swearing in company other than your friends?"

"No seriously Dad, holy cow." Una pointed to a cow with the longest horns standing amidst the traffic. . Travel shows on TV had prepared her for this and because it really was awesomely absurd to come across an indifferent cow with a big red vermillion powdered U on its forehead, Una pressed her palms together and bowed towards it.

The cow wasn't the only animal on the road. The lesser animals like stray dogs with knitted jackets and nonchalant rhesus monkeys hovered on the edges of the traffic. Una was quite taken by the monkeys feasting on the edible franchise of the Indian sweets hawker who was rudely staring at her face. His staring was interrupted when mayhem broke out in the group. The monkeys began to rumble and bark loudly, as a flying, furry faced langur pounced in the middle of their group making the largest whoop. She expected a fight but no, the rhesus monkey troop dropped their food and scarpered.  Successful in its mission, the langur paused and instead of picking the food, he turned around, gazed at her for a long while and then bounded away ahead unlike her taxi unimpeded by traffic.

"Not much difference between the hawker and the langur then", Una commented. Her Dad didn't acknowledge her. Uncharacteristically, he had not paid attention to anything since he arrived in India which was unlike him. Una wished her Mum had been with her instead. She would've rejoiced in the spectacle of the 'fairground'. She really loved fairgrounds and candy. Una laughed, perhaps her mum was lucky. There were no whiffs of candy in this fairground – but wafting spices, fried sugar, open fires and kerosene with a hint of manure, which thickened the cold air and clogged her nostrils instead.