5th of May, 2023.
Hitchhiking in India.
Ashutosh is a lawyer and he is taken his wife, Sarna, for a medical check in Gorakhpur. They are very sweet and try to find a laboratory not so far into town, so they can drop me off on the way to Bangladesh later. While Sarna is at the laboratory, Ashutosh help me to make a new hitchhiking sign.
The next people to pick me up are Dupa and Shandee. Dupa is a nice man and he calls his family to tell them about me. They only drive me about 50 Km after Gorakhpur.
Prakant drives me another 50 Km. Then someone drives me to this small town, called Mau (which is very interesting for me because in Portuguese “mau” it means bad). And the last lift of the day is by Pradeep, who drives me outside Ghazipur in his truck. Now the thing is, I only menage to travel about three hours driving today, which is very little.
When Pradeep drops me off, is already night time. And here I am, again, walking in the dark, alone, wondering through an empty road. It seems like my destiny!
This village is called Mednipur. There is a tiny pharmacy, which looks more like a stand actually, and there is a man attending to some patients. For some reason I feel like I should ask him for help, so I do. Surjeet Singh cannot speak much English but he understands immediately what I need and say I can come to his family house and stay with them tonight. He tells me he will close the pharmacy later, so to not let me waiting, he leaves a man (who it seems to be just a friend) in charge, and take me to his house in his motorcycle. Oh, boy, a wonderful journey starts when I arrive to his home.
His family is big and they all live together in a big house. It is when I meet his elder daughter that everything starts. Her name is Sakshi, and she can’t be more than 12 years old. She is the sweetest girl ever! She is so clever, so enlightened, and so adorable, that I think she is just a little angel who fell from the sky. She understands everything I say and translates to the rest of the family. She helps me to settle down and do everything I have to. And she is so happy with my presence here, she constantly repeats that to me. Actually, the whole family seems so happy to have me around, just like in Priya’s house.
Here is a list which Sakshi wrote it for me, with the name of all the family members: Sarita, Vaishnaui, Janui, Pushpa, Sanu, Jaiprakash, Seru, Rani, Amit, Rohan, Anshika, Guddu, Anita, Nika, Anshu, Neha, Ajit, Khushi, Muskan, Veer, Meena, Prem, Badri, Chiku and Pindu.
Sakshi writes all of them in my notebook, where she also sticks some of her beautiful art. She also loves to do DIY stuff and show some to me. They are all great! She gives me two bookmarkers she made, and some other DIY cute things she made. And I also get my first mehndi, made by one of the girls 😍
When Surjeet Singh is back from work, a big group of us go to his sister’s house, where they have an ice cream factory. They want for me to take a shower there, instead of taking a bucket shower in their home. I insist that is not necessary, that I’m used to bucket shower, but there’s no argument.
Back at their house, we have so much food for dinner that I think I will explode. They keep bringing me different snacks and treats all the time. They are all very kind!
They try to make me to sleep in the bed but I insist on sleeping on the floor with Sakshi and her younger sister. Because their rom has AC, we all sleep there, with Surjeet Singh and his wife staying in the bed, and me with the girls on the floor. If they knew how happy I am for sleeping outside, on the rooftop, they wouldn’t go for all that trouble for me.
Next morning, I meet some other members of the family, and all of them want to show me their rooms. It is so cute! We all go to the temple before breakfast. All the women and I walk there through the maze of alleys in the village. They all make their offers and then we come back.
Some of the ladies give me some of their own red bangles. I’m married now! Laugh.
I just regret that I didn’t have one single photograph with this wonderful family. It is true that, at some point, I asked the women if we could take a photo and they refused. But at least with the children, I wish I had had one picture. What to do…
After breakfast, Sujeet Singh brings me back to a hitchhiking spot in his motorcycle.
10 Years Around the World 