So yeah, I got carjacked tonight coming out of temple.
Well, I wouldn't call it "carjacked", really. I just thought that sounded delightfully melodramatic.
I'm in the shoe room, just about to leave and the two musicians got my attention. After some seconds of me looking at them like a deer in the headlights because I speak only two words of Tamil (literally, just vanakkam and nandri), and clearly their English is... well, non-existent, they got the point across: would I be able to give them a ride? They did manage to get "Texas Road" across to me. It's the road right outside one of the two temple entrances. It's not a long road, so I knew I wouldn't be gone for days.
I said of course. So we walked to the truck, put the instruments in the back and piled in. The one guy said "canteen". That was the first stop on the itinerary, and I came to understand why. Then he said whatever "right" is in Tamil and pointed because we were to turn right and stop. Then he pointed left and said whatever "left" is in Tamil and stop. Of course I'm saying "oh you want to turn left?", forgetting the man doesn't speak a word of English! So we resorted to hand signals. Just like in the days before blinker lights and we had to stick our hands out the window to signal. These little steps were his way of giving directions. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. See, humans really can communicate if they want to. Oh, it wasn't an "Algonquin round table of snappy repartee" (a line from The Martian), but it would do.
As it turned out it was just a short stone's throw from the temple to the house. They got the instruments out, I wanted to help, but I got sign language that clearly meant "no, no, thank you, we got it". There was mucho namaskar back and forth, and several "nandri". Of course this idiot here is still rambling in English "you're welcome, glad to help, any time". I'm hopeless.
