A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
I snapped her picture and she grinned when I showed it to her. She insisted we show her mom. Her mom was traveling to Chennai for surgery. With a plastic pipe sticking out of her trachea she was too tired and uncomfortable to even smile at the excitement of her six year old. All week I've been dying for communication with the people I come across, speaking slowly with lots of hand gestures in English and Bengali, but few people speak enough English for a conversation and no one yet (besides my traveling companion) speaks Bengali. The little girl's smile was hard won.
A little while later I stuck an earphone into the little girl's ear. She recoiled. I went back to my window and disk player. A few minutes later she came over beside me. She pulled an earphone from my ear and held it to hers. She was astonished to hear music playing and sat completely still until the song finished. She looked at me sharply. "What happened??" "Just a minute," my hands told her. Soon she was again enraptured in the music.
As the disk spun and "The Phoenix Foundation" album gave way to "Newvale" and then "Our Lady Peace" the little girl grew less still. One hand clutching the music to her ear she began swaying. Upon realizing the earbud would sat in her ear on it's own accord she began imitating my air drumming, which she interpreted as something resembling disco dancing, which progressed to full-fledged Hindi dancing, surely a first for OLP.
She had slipped off the seat for better Hindi moves, dancing as far as the cord would allow, laughing and flinging her arms when her dad turned around from helping her mom eat.
"IF YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO MUSIC SIT STILL!"
I don't understand any Telugu language, but that is what his tone said. A serious little girl crawled up beside me.
Later, as I got ready for the night, I gave her both ear plugs for a while. Once again, her face registered surprise. OH!! "Can I hear?" intoned her father. She held out one earphone. I watched in horror as the soft earbuds that usually nestle deep in MY ear canals passed around to All Six other people in the cabin. Good thing no major diseases spread by earwax.
Then it was bed time and she joined her dad on the top bunk, her mom crawled onto the middle one and on the lowest bunk my player spun a few "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy" albums before our midnight arrival in Chirala.
A little while later I stuck an earphone into the little girl's ear. She recoiled. I went back to my window and disk player. A few minutes later she came over beside me. She pulled an earphone from my ear and held it to hers. She was astonished to hear music playing and sat completely still until the song finished. She looked at me sharply. "What happened??" "Just a minute," my hands told her. Soon she was again enraptured in the music.
As the disk spun and "The Phoenix Foundation" album gave way to "Newvale" and then "Our Lady Peace" the little girl grew less still. One hand clutching the music to her ear she began swaying. Upon realizing the earbud would sat in her ear on it's own accord she began imitating my air drumming, which she interpreted as something resembling disco dancing, which progressed to full-fledged Hindi dancing, surely a first for OLP.She had slipped off the seat for better Hindi moves, dancing as far as the cord would allow, laughing and flinging her arms when her dad turned around from helping her mom eat.
"IF YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO MUSIC SIT STILL!"
I don't understand any Telugu language, but that is what his tone said. A serious little girl crawled up beside me.
Later, as I got ready for the night, I gave her both ear plugs for a while. Once again, her face registered surprise. OH!! "Can I hear?" intoned her father. She held out one earphone. I watched in horror as the soft earbuds that usually nestle deep in MY ear canals passed around to All Six other people in the cabin. Good thing no major diseases spread by earwax.
Then it was bed time and she joined her dad on the top bunk, her mom crawled onto the middle one and on the lowest bunk my player spun a few "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy" albums before our midnight arrival in Chirala.
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