Well this week I officially lost it. Yet another stranger, this time at the local botanical garden, wanted a picture of my child. On this particular occasion the stranger started taking pictures, without asking, while my child was having a severe temper tantrum meltdown. It had been a long day and I finally blew up at this stranger. "STOP IT! Now that's enough! She's having a moment here and now you need to stop!" The stranger walked away with a smirk on her face.
Being white in India is somewhat similar to a being a celebrity in America. Everybody stares at you, wants a photo with you, pinches your kid's cheeks, picks them up without asking, grabs their arms…you get the idea. I've grown somewhat used to the stares and I've learned which places I need to protect my children from grabby strangers. I've also gotten used to the occasional request for a photo. However, on this particular day it was about the 100th request for a photo and we had spent the earlier half of our day at the Foreigners registration office (major headache). So, it was almost a matter of time before one of these lovely Indians got their head chewed off. We all have moments when we crack.
I had been wanting to post this for a few months, but was waiting for the appropriate time to do so. I guess this week seemed fitting since I lost my cool. So here are some pictures of all of the STARES we get. I have also included some pictures of some of the many STAIRS that we climb. Due to overpopulation/limited space everything is built up, up, up. Almost everywhere you go you climb stairs to get to your location. Luckily you can almost always find an elevator nearby as well. However these elevators are very, very tiny. We have a hard time fitting our family of four in most of the elevators, especially when we have the carseat. (Yes, we have been using a carseat for John…most of the time).
I hope you enjoy these pictures. All of them are taken with complete strangers.
Which one of these is not like the other?
Usually they want a picture with Kris or Molly, so I was pretty pumped when I got asked for a photo.
I should have counted how many times Sam got asked for a photo while we were in Mysore. He was a good sport about it.
I think this fellow had a thing for Jilliann.
Some of the many stairs we climbed while on vacation.
More stairs. Nothing is handicap accessible. I don't know how anyone in a wheelchair would function here.
Has anyone else had an experience like this? Maybe you are the one asking for photos with complete strangers. Hopefully next time I can calmly respond…we'll see :)
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