Last Sunday two of Vital sir’s advanced students were practicing for a concert that was supposed to take place today. I like to see as many concerts as I can, so I went upstairs at 6pm to check if anyone was going. Only Shri Hari (Vittal sir’s 7-year-old son), and Vittal sir’s mom and dad were home (a bad sign. I guess I had missed the boat). It turned out to be a wedding concert, so I couldn’t go anyways because I wasn’t invited to the wedding. Normally I would just go downstairs, but today I decided to hang out with the old and young folks. It’s kind of a funny dynamic with them, because Vittal sir’s mom speaks only a little English (his dad speaks none), and Shri hari is 7. Communication is very basic, but sometimes interesting, as it was today.

I noticed firecrackers outside so I asked if it was a holiday. Turns out it was, another holiday! Vittal sir’s mom turned the T.V. to a channel with some religious stuff in Hindi, smiled at me, and said “this” pointing to the T.V. I guess the show was about the holiday, but I didn’t’ understand anything they were saying, so it didn’t help much, but it was a nice gesture.

I went outside with Shri Hari, and watched other people burst firecrackers for a bit. That’s when he started trying to convince me that I wanted to burst firecrackers with him, which entailed going down the street (only about 100 meters) to a store which he was sure had them. I wasn’t that in the mood, but I like Shri Hari (I like most kids), and I wanted to see him happy. I know he really wanted to burst crackers, and he was otherwise left at home to watch T.V. with his grandma and grandpa on a holiday when his mom and sister where out at a probably pretty fun party.

He went in and told his grandma that I wanted to burst crackers, and could he go and show me the store that they were at. I understood that he asked her this even without understanding the language, because she seemed skeptical, and asked me if I really did want to burst crackers.  At first I wasn’t very convincing, but then I firmly said that I wanted to, because I knew his grandma wouldn’t let him go if I wasn’t enthusiastic.

100 meters down the road is a shopping street. I wasn’t very quick to cross the road. I never am. The traffic is insane!, and there are a total of 0 pedestrian crossings in the city, so without consulting me Shri Hari talked to an auto-rickshaw driver, and got him help us cross the road. The driver actually did! This was hilarious. I held Shri Hari’s hand, he held the rickshaw drivers hand and we crossed the road. I wish I could ask auto rickshaw drivers to help me cross the road all the time! There are certain advantages to being 7.

This was the point I realized that although in some ways Shri Hari knew more than me about his city he was still 7. I was the adult, and had to be responsible for him. The next time we crossed I took control, took his hand, and made the moves. I’m slow, but I CAN cross the road by myself! I still don’t completely trust my judgment in traffic here though, so it’s kind of stressful being responsible for a kid as well as myself. I actually thought that he would be an expert at crossing the roads. Stupid me! He’s only 7!

We ran from store to store. Shri Hari asked all the sales clerks. There were no fireworks anywhere in the any of the stores we looked! After we had tried all the stores on the block Shri Hari had a new plan “I know where we have to go.” He said. “We have to go to Pothy’s. There’s a firecracker store near Pothy’s” Pothy’s is about a 15 minute walk from the house. It’s not that far, but it was 7:30pm, which is late here (many things shut down early here, so there is a shady feel to the city almost as soon as it gets dark). Also Pothy’s is in one of the most crowded, heaviest traffic areas of the city. I said, “We have to go home and ask your grandma”. He said, “no my grandma won’t mind”, and he started talking to an auto-rickshaw driver. The driver said “40 rupees. “Shri Hari said to me “O.k. 40 rupees. Let’s go”. I said “no, it’s not that far. We could walk.” I couldn’t believe he was trying to get us in an auto! I wasn’t about to make a decision that quickly. I actually never take autos, because I’m living on savings, and I can’t throw my money around. He said, “O.k. lets walk”. I said again that we should ask his grandma, but he assured me that she wouldn’t mind. That should have been my hint!

We walked and ran there. He was very excited to get the crackers. When we were about half way he said: “we should take an auto. It’s very far. Maybe we will be gone too long, and my grandma will be worried.” But I knew that now it would make no difference. I said, “We’re half way there!” He said, “I’ve never walked to Pothy’s before. I’ve only taken an auto.” That’s when I realized that I probably should not be attending so much to the whims of a 7 year old in a country were I don’t really know how things work. Oh well. We were almost there.

We got to the main road, and Shri Hari got super excited. He said, “let’s run!” so we did. The firecracker store was on the opposite side of a VERY VERY busy road. Shri Hari got in an auto rickshaw, and asked the driver to drive us to the other side of the road. I didn’t understand what he had done, but when the auto-rickshaw driver laughed I realized what had happened. I said. “Shri Hari, he can’t drive us across the street.” Fortunately a nice man noticed, and took Shri Hari’s hand, and helped us both cross.

The firecracker store had everything behind the counter. It took me a little while to figure out how it worked. The process to buy firecrackers involved filling out a form (like the order form at a Chinese restaurant), and then going to the cash, receiving a printed bill, paying, collecting the receipt, and then cashing it in for the goods. It should have been simple. The sheet was in English. Shri hari couldn’t read it, so he got me to read it, but he was going crazy looking at all the firecrackers. He was running around looking at everything behind the counter, and asking the sales people to show him it all. The people in the shop couldn’t really speak English, and Shri Hari was getting confused by listening to English and Tamil at the same time, as well as by his own excitement. He had no idea how the shop worked, and kept dragging me in all directions telling me he wanted this and that. I realized that I REALLY had to take charge, but it was so hard, because he was talking to the people in the shop in Tamil, and I had no idea what they were saying. I made him focus on the sheet for about 30 seconds, and we made an order that was roughly 100 rupees. I lined up. He actually wanted me to go right to the front of the line. He was showing me where the cash was! I said firmly “we HAVE to line up.” When we got to the cash I handed over our order, but Shri Hari was still talking! I realized that the order was changing!, more and more things were being added to it. The fireworks here can actually get expensive. I wanted him to have fun, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money, and buy more than we would even have time to burst. I was also angry that he wasn’t listening to me. I said. “NO. Just what’s on the sheet!” The difficulty in the situation was that the cashier couldn’t really understand what I was saying, so he reverted to listening to Shri Hari. The line up behind us was growing, and the cashier was getting frustrated. I said, “just what’s on the sheet!”, but the cashier didn’t understand me. The order changed about 5 times until finally I paid (almost 200 rupees). I didn’t’ care about the money as much as loosing control. In the end the man behind us helped a little, and I ended up not ordering a ridiculous amount of crackers, and Shri Hari got pretty much what he wanted.

I decided to take an auto-rickshaw back, because I started to think Shri Hari’s grandma was going to kill me. I scolded Shri Hari in the auto for not listening to me. He listened then, but said he was confused because of the different languages (and I guessed also his excitement). I realized also, that I had made a mistake in trusting his judgment! (So I couldn’t be too angry).  I am used to assuming the locals know what is going on here, and following suit. Following suit with 7 year-old local doesn’t always work so well! A privileged seven year old Indian boy and a white woman loose in the streets of Chennai! What a team. The blind leading the blind! We must have been good entertainment for a number of people tonight.

When we got back I went right upstairs. One of Vittal sir’s older students was standing in the door. He had been looking for us!, but not for too long, and Shri Hari’s grandma was a little worried, but not enough to be angry. Fortunately Vittal sir’s student could explain everything that happened, and Shri Hari’s grandma actually found it funny. It was nice to be able to share the humor. Actually a relief, because I was terrified I’d be in big trouble.

We burst some of the crackers, and then Shri Hari’s grandma fed us super.  Over all a nice night, that could have gone terribly wrong. I still don’t know what the holiday is.