{"id":1701,"date":"2015-12-11T09:03:46","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T09:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2015-12-11T09:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T09:03:46","slug":"harold-jaffes-dispatches-from-india-december-10-2015-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/harold-jaffes-dispatches-from-india-december-10-2015-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India<\/em> – December 10, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chai Twins Monke<\/strong><\/em>y<\/p>\n

Chai shop. 7:30 PM.
\nThe dhobi\u2019s workday which began at 6 AM is over.
\nHe\u2019s having his customary plastic glass of masala chai, sitting on
\none of the stools at the large wooden table.
\nHis name is Mohan, he is of the washerman caste.
\nHis working day is limitless, but today it is merely long because the
\nupper-caste home-owner and his wife are travelling to Rajastan.<\/p>\n

Usually Mohan is having chai and chatting with three or four other
\ndhobis he has known from childhood in Kashi, but not tonight
\nbecause Mohan is early.
\nLike other dhobis, Mohan is thin and dark with a black mustache.
\nHe is wearing faded, colorless trousers his patron\u2019s son wore then
\ndisposed of, along with a old teflon short-sleeved shirt and flip-flops.<\/p>\n

What is he thinking as he sips his chai?
\nHe\u2019s thinking about having a small dinner with his wife and four-
\nyear-old son in their shanty in northeast Kashi, not far from the long
\nhalf-moon sandbar east of the ghats, left vacant so that devotional
\nHindus can see the sunrise when they do puja.
\nSo that tourists will pay to take a small rowboat on the Ganges at
\ndawn to see the sunrise.
\nMohan\u2019s old bicycle will weave him through the dense traffic for the
\nforty-five minute trip back and forth from his shanty to his work.<\/p>\n

A man about Mohan\u2019s age enters the shop and sits on a stool
\nalongside Mohan but three stools to the left.
\nThey nod to each other though they do not know each other.
\nThe man orders masala chai.<\/p>\n

Though neither seems to notice, the men are about the same age
\nand look close to identical, except that Mohan is distinctly darker.
\nMoroeover, the man is well-dressed in well-fitting western clothes
\nwith a white silk scarf tied elegantly at his neck.
\nHe is wearing smart leather shoes; Mohan has never worn leather in
\nhis 26 years.
\nThe man carries a smart phone and is now talking into it in Hindi.
\nHe talks in a way that makes him seem independent, a decision-
\nmaker.<\/p>\n

His chai comes and he sips it while talking on the phone.
\nMohan scarcely notices; he is tired and sips his chai without
\nthinking, except remotely of bicycling home to his wife and child.
\nThe man disconnects and immediately makes another call, this time
\nspeaking in Engish with authority.
\nHe disconnects again, has a final sip of tea, leave a fifty-note rupee
\non the table, leaves.<\/p>\n

Carrying his smart phone in his left hand, he is about to step into his
\nwhite Toyota Camry (nearly all the cars in Kashi are white) when a
\nmale macaque monkey suddenly hops down in front of him and
\nseizes the phone from his hand.
\nThe man utters an oath in Hindi and makes after the monkey into
\nthe dense traffic where he is run over and killed\u00df by a white
\nMercedes.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/jaffeantijaffe.sdsu.edu\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jaffeantijaffe<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/haroldjaffe.wordpress.com\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chai Twins Monkey Chai shop. 7:30 PM. The dhobi\u2019s workday which began at 6 AM is over. He\u2019s having his customary plastic glass of masala chai, sitting on one of the stools at the large wooden table. His name is Mohan, he is of the washerman caste. His working day is limitless, but today it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fictioninternational.sdsu.edu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}