Monday, April 12, 2010

The English Girl!

I was a little more cautious and woke up in time and was quick enough to get things going. However to my bad luck I had some external factors that affected my timing again.

We (my colleague and me), like yesterday followed the routine breakfast and also the routine route to reach the work place. At work it was a light day, with a few business interactions. After this we were having an argument, or call it a discussion on endless topics and to end all the talking music was the saviour, as we drove back to our hotel. 

We were back early, so decided to explore the city. We could not see most of the tourist attractions as it was quite late for any of it to remain open. But just a market place was open where the driver advised us to take a stroll around. This was an interesting place and all thanks to the driver. It was a local sight with all its common 'janta' around, with manual rickshaw pullers who were transporting people, local stalls selling food, street vendors screaming to sell, shop-keepers inviting us to their shops and give them more business. I was enjoying the local environment around me.  

Just while I was moving around, there was this small little girl who came running behind me to sell some fashion accessories to me. To my surprise, she started talking to me in English. I was astonished to see this 10year old girl to be speaking in English so well, with no much of accent or grammatical errors. She gave me an accessory and priced it 10Rs. and told me that the money would help her with her needs related to her school. However my colleague immediately commented, 'hey, she is lying just to make some money out of you.' before I could respond to my colleague, she instantly replied to him, 'sir, I am not lying I go to school from 7am to 2pm and then sell in the market till night to help myself'. He dint have words to respond to her. I handed her the money, picked my stuff and wished her luck. 

She was confident of what she was speaking, smiling, and also could read the buyers mind quite well. She said she was going to school and attended 3rd standard. It was a commendable interaction with her I felt, a girl who might have been just 12years old, had such acquaintance of the business she held and the people with whom she was dealing. While I returned I clicked a few pictures of her and smiled at her. A few of her friends also came along to bid goodbye to me. My friend gave them all a few bucks to buy some ice creams.



After having bid them, we drove around the city and tried some Kolkata food for dinner. I could see some horse riders around finishing their business and discussing their day among themselves. 


We finally ended our day with some delicious pan, a speciality in Kolkata (beetle leaf). However, my thoughts about the little girl did not end with my day, she really inspired me and I remember her as 'The English Girl'.