That’s what I’m going to call the man at the Om Restaurant. He didn’t tell us his name, but Ethan and I told him ours. We had an interesting conversation while the four of us enjoyed our ice cream.
Bob works at Om. He’s the cook and was very excited when he found out that Mom teaches cooking: “Oh my… goodness!” He shrieked. “I am the cook… I could teach you Indian cooking!” He grew up in a village of fifty people on the border of Pakistan. He said that there is no electricity and the water comes from wells.
“The people, they… cut stone and raise cows and camels,” Bob said. “I came to Jaisalmer for money.” First he worked in a restaurant in the old city, but its owner married an Australian and moved to her country.
So Bob went to a hotel. He didn’t like it because the tourists were getting drunk. One day a man (who was drunk) grabbed him by the back of the neck. Bob immediately knew what to do: he whacked the man with the hot frying pan he was holding. And then he left.
Bob’s only been working at Om for a month but has been working at his English for years. He said that, in his village, the kids get no education and they don’t know how old they are. His younger brother is trying to get an education, and Bob is earning money for him as well as his mother and the rest of his family. He gets the last of his rupees.
Ciao!