God bless you Joseph

When I used to get lost whilst running in Paris I always had my Carte Orange (metro ticket) which meant that I could get home to the Vaugirard station safely. That system doesn’t work so well in Bangalore for obvious reasons. So when after running for about an hour this morning I found myself particularly lost in a shanty town somewhere in the sprawling 8 million person metropolis that is Bangalore, I was starting to get a bit concerned. The first conversation with a non English speaking dalit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit) didn’t go so well. Thankfully things took a turn for the better when a kind motorcyclist called Joseph pulled up on the dusty dirt track road. He explained that my hotel was a good 5 miles away. He told me to hop on to the back of his bike and off we sped back to the city centre (I decided not to ask to see his driving licence nor if he had a spare helmet because this was obviously de rigueur for any self respecting Parisian moto-taxi). As I got on his bike he introduced himself and wished me a Happy Easter. It turned out he too was a Catholic with a Protestant mother. I enjoyed the chat as we bombed along (when the Indian roads permitted of course).The whole ride lasted about 10-15 minutes; definitely another good experience in a country in which I am feeling increasingly comfortable.