We met some wonderful people on our trip... Lucknowi people are known for their polite ways. The "pehle aap" (you first) attitude is not a myth and it's really endearing. Mumbaikers are sweet too but in a different way... The way we mash up our Hindi in Bombay actually makes us sound really rude, especially for a person coming from places like Lucknow where they speak almost in a musical way. It's lovely! When we were shopping at the 'Seva Chikan' shop in Lucknow, the man who was serving was just so sweet! There was a point where Vini was sliding across the nice slippery floor and then when she saw the man looking at her she apologetically excused herself but the man said, "Nahi, Nahi... Kheliye kheliye..." :) (no, no, play on!) And by the end of the night he actually referred to Sonu as "Sonu ji"... (you put a 'ji' at the end for respect in Hindi) "Sonu ji, aap yeh dekhiye..." (Sonu ji, look at this...)
There was also this Punjabi man in Mussoorie who I remember with fondness... He had a store with beautiful shawls and a bunch of toys too. Sonu and I were swooning over the shawls and I accidentally toppled over a bunch of toys and was apologising profusely and the sweet old man didn't seem perturbed at all and quickly came over, put the toys back in order and said, "Koi nai, Koi nai..." (nevermind) in Punjabi and I all but melted :)
Then there was Jayveer :) at this little restaurant that we accidentally found on Gun Hill in Mussoorie. He was probably about 14 or 15 years old and he just served with such enthusiasm and in such speed that by the end of the evening we all had a little bit of a 'crush' on him :P He was mighty handsome too and actually came out to say 'bye' to us when we left...
There were all sorts of other people that I remember even if we didn't necessarily interact with all of them... Here are photos of some of them...
Nice post. India has so much more than meets the eye!! So much beauty and such hospitality.
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