we met "carlos baba" through russian classes, which ashu had joined. i was not much in favour of learning russian, due to the heafty fees of 100$ per week. but ashu went ahead and took the risk.
one day he came back from classes with a smiling old pleasant man and introduced him as carlos. Both ashu and i have this strange habit of calling old poeple "baba" (means grandpa) if we really like them. And that,s how we got to know this pleasant mexican piano school teacher.
Both of us enjoyed his company very much. carlos baba was a professional gestalt-psychotherapist, and that made him all the more interesting. He was really fond of indian spiritualism and used to listen very carefully when ashu used to blabber his knowledge. I feel he is one of the perfect listeners ashu has ever got. He had come to odessa just for learning russian language. He had been taking russian lesions in mexico itself for quite some years and he felt he needed to interact with locals now.
we used to cook tasty indian dishes for him and he enjoyed them thoroughly with his beer and wine. we never asked him anything about drinking as this was a culture in odessa, and probably in mexico. But after spending much time together one day Ashu requested him not to drink for one day, and he was so happy at this request, as he felt we never said anything till that date and that was the first time we ever asked him anything.
He used to take us out for meals many times. one day we were looking for some good place to eat and somehow landed in one of most expensive restaurants in city centre. when we looked at the menu-card and rates we all started looking at each other, as carlos paid bills most of times. i suggested to sneak out, and we all three quietly left the place. Initially i was embarrased but later we enjoyed the incident.
i was very fond of the carlos baba's real life stories. i loved probing him and he always managed to come up with funny answers. Once i asked him if people had divorce back in mexico, and he told me all eight of his brothers and sisters had divorce except one of his sisters, whose husband died before she could think of divorcing him. He himself had divorce twice and the story of his second wife was really funny, who sweeped the whole house when she left, even the toilet papers. the only thing left in the house was a phone embedded in wall, which she couldn't manage to take out.
When elder brother of carlos aged,sixty-two married a sixteen year old girl, carlos blessed her on the wedding by saying" you will make a beautiful widow".I couldn't understand how she managed to talk to carlos baba after this. But now they have a beautiful baby boy.
A man of wit and intelligence, carlos even dared to visit us in india . He didn't have our phone numbers even when he reached india. Later he told he would had taken the next flight back if he was not able to contact us. There was a puja in ashu's paternal village and holi, the festival of colors. we asked carlos to accompany us and he managed wonderfully in village with mosquitoes and traditional" bhang" on holi. Later he told ashu that he had one of the most incredible experiences of his life with "bhang" with the feeling of his two hands sticking to each other. A lovely person, i miss him and the loving times with him very much.
lovely kids introduced to us by carlos, from his family.
one day he came back from classes with a smiling old pleasant man and introduced him as carlos. Both ashu and i have this strange habit of calling old poeple "baba" (means grandpa) if we really like them. And that,s how we got to know this pleasant mexican piano school teacher.
Both of us enjoyed his company very much. carlos baba was a professional gestalt-psychotherapist, and that made him all the more interesting. He was really fond of indian spiritualism and used to listen very carefully when ashu used to blabber his knowledge. I feel he is one of the perfect listeners ashu has ever got. He had come to odessa just for learning russian language. He had been taking russian lesions in mexico itself for quite some years and he felt he needed to interact with locals now.
He used to take us out for meals many times. one day we were looking for some good place to eat and somehow landed in one of most expensive restaurants in city centre. when we looked at the menu-card and rates we all started looking at each other, as carlos paid bills most of times. i suggested to sneak out, and we all three quietly left the place. Initially i was embarrased but later we enjoyed the incident.
A man of wit and intelligence, carlos even dared to visit us in india . He didn't have our phone numbers even when he reached india. Later he told he would had taken the next flight back if he was not able to contact us. There was a puja in ashu's paternal village and holi, the festival of colors. we asked carlos to accompany us and he managed wonderfully in village with mosquitoes and traditional" bhang" on holi. Later he told ashu that he had one of the most incredible experiences of his life with "bhang" with the feeling of his two hands sticking to each other. A lovely person, i miss him and the loving times with him very much.
