Friday, September 01, 2006

johnny cash and namaskahr

my friend Brook told me the funniest story yesterday. well, i was telling her how it was kind of wierd, most of my floor mates in the building are young men. here in this culture men and women don't really interact unless they're married. and so she told me about when she and maggie were living together when they first moved here. everyone in their building was from India and they didn't speak any Nepali. all of their neighbors would pound on their door late at night after they were in bed and they wouldn't stop until someone answered the door. and when brook and maggie opened the door there were 10 or so Indian guys and one Indian girl just standing there, staring at them. they didn't say anything, only standing and staring. to break the awkwardness maggie grabbed her guitar and started playing johnny cash songs. they liked that. they smiled. maggie & brook only knew two Hindi words, "chai" and "namaskahr." so she strummed the guitar, hummed a little tune and sang the word chai then namaskahr, and so on. only two little words. but they loved it they were smiling and nodding their heads and repeating the two words to the melody.

so, i feel like there is always a common ground. somehow we all have something in common. with some people it's easy to find this common ground, with others we have to be more creative.

help me find this common ground.
even if it means making a fool of myself.
with the neighbors.
with our friends on the street.
even if it means more white rice.

2 comments:

Ian said...

this is hilarious. i laughed outloud when i read it. i love you molls and MISS YOUR FACE!!

Angelic said...

and remember to "get rythym when you get the blues, come on get rythym when you get the blues."