Still at the Homestay

I brought my little brothers a blue “Nerf” football from the states. It is a mini football, with wings on the end and a “Colts” logo and sign on it. I thought it would be fun for them to play with, and a symbol of US sports and teams. I gave it to them this afternoon when we were heading to the park to play. They were mesmerized! They had no idea what it was or what to do with it; the fact that it whistles when thrown is another story! We got to the park and all of the kids there ran up to us immediately. Partly because I was with them and partly because of what the boys were holding. We began to throw it around and all the boys stopped playing cricket, girls stopped swinging and everyone crowded. I was excited, hoping to share the toy with the other kids and let them see the football, something they had clearly never seen before and was so sparkling new. My brothers immediately said we had to leave. “They'll break it” they told me. “they'll rip the wings off and never give it back.” We moved, and the boys followed. They were older, 13 or 14 maybe, and just seemed curious to me. I did see a sparkle of jealousy in one of the boys eyes, mixed with mischief. We moved on and played somewhere else. The boys kept following us, and we soon learned to ignore it, although it did feel weird to not let the other kids play with us. It made me think about a few different things, one being the fact that they have never seen a football, and two being the fact that my brothers knew they couldn't let the other boys touch it. My brothers actually looked scared; fear was the only thing I could see in my little brother's eyes when one of the older boys yelled “Dedo” (a polite way of saying “give it”). We had friends over our house tonight, two young kids and their parents, and none of them had any idea what the football was. I had to explain it, as best as I could, in Hindi. I realized that them not knowing my football was the same as me not knowing the long wooden stick they call a cricket bat.

It's interesting that I keep learning and experiencing new things here, different aspects of culture I never noticed last time, and different ways of life that continuously distract me. My mom gave the little one a bath this morning. He is 8 and spending a lot of time outside because they are on summer break. She rubbed him up and down (while he screamed) with a mixture of bread and buttermilk; it makes the skin lighter. An equivalent-but opposite- to our tanning booths? Who knows.