girls on bikes

Today my teacher's niece, Barkha, took me by scooter into the city to see her house, visit her mom and have lunch. Barkha is only 17 years old but wise beyond her years. And a darn good driver, I might add. We hopped on the moped after breakfast, before the heat started to build, and zipped up the gravel hill to the main road that leads into town. 2 girls on a bike.
Her house is nice. The rent per month is only $100 dollars Canadian plus utilities. You get two big rooms, a kitchen, a nice big new bathroom, and an open air sitting area. What a deal. We sipped chai and snacked on homemade potato chips and mango slices. We leafed through family photos and played board games with her little brother Siddarth and her little sister Chetana. Then we ate lunch on the floor, traditional Indian style. It was delicious! Then we had a nap on her mother's bed and waited for the satellite t.v. man to show up and hook up their dish. After he did it, we watched slapstick Indian comedies and laughed ourselves silly. aaaah, television. and slapstick is that rare form of comedy that crosses all language barriers.
Then Barkha and I re-embarked the moped for home. The air was so hot in the afternoon, i thought i WAS on a motorcycle in the Arizona desert in July. There was much cattle in the streets on the way back, cows AND horses, big ones, small ones, ponies, babies. So many cows and horses today. It was a unique experience to be weaving in between cows and horses on a scooter. Never did that before.
Thank you Barkha, for a fun day.