I found 3 guys from an engineering college in Gujarat in a walking tour in Brussels. I had stopped over in Brussels for a night enroute Paris and had therefore booked a free walking tour around the Grand Market in Brussels. (We love free things, especially students, 5 points if we happen to be Indian as well) They were studying in Germany and had also come to Brussels for a short trip.
Since they looked familiar and from home sweet home, I asked them in Hindi if they were from India and that's how our conversation started. At that point of time, I had a fringe and was 2/ 3 skin tones lighter at that time and was carrying a huge fluorescent green rucksack and happened to be traveling with a girl from China. One of the guys told me I look Mexican!
After talking for a few more minutes and exchanging our stories of how we ended up in Brussels, they told me I look totally Gujarati! (I was like excuse me!) We were trying very hard to keep up with the rest of the group and while talking, my friend, I and one Gujarati guy got isolated from the tour. We ran around in huge circles around the Grote Market (ran is too literal) to find his other two friends and also the group but to no avail. So we decided to make our own tour.
The three of us played a small game. We picked a street one by one (the streets being super lively and bling bling due to it being Christmas week) and pretended to be tour guides for each other. It was a hell lot crazy and we had to constantly use our creativity and presence of mind and the tour guide tone. We walked into a random huge building that looked like the Parthenon and imagined that the statue of the lion there was Aslan from Narnia! The Gujju guy didn't want to be a tour guide so the overenthusiastic me took over.
Then, his phone died. My mobile data didn't work. We were bad at remembering directions. 3 lost kids in a huge marketplace. We ate waffles. We found a man from Kashmir selling shawls in one of the stalls there. Had a conversation in Hindi. I found a charger in my bag (thankfully his phone wasn't apple). Belgium being famous for chocolates, we entered a chocolate shop and asked if we could charge his phone there. The awesome ladies behind the counter fed us some chocolates and how could we refuse? Finally, he called his friends after we waited around for 15 minutes.
Evening had dawned on us. We went back to the central market square (Grote Market) and were greeted by a light show on the walls. There was a huge Christmas tree in the market square. Some buildings under repair carried the same facade as the existing building. The lights were so trippy and the place, crowded as fuck. We clicked a selfie together. The guy found his friends. My Chinese friend and I walked to the place where we were staying.
I found friends in a foreign land. That moment was so nice. I found a piece of Gujarat outside Gujarat. A small paragraph from the book of my life. Btw, I do not happen to be Gujarati.
No comments:
Post a Comment