“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport”, the air hostess’ voice crackled over the PA system and Erasmus Otiende shifted impatiently in his seat. He was a large man and the seat was far too small for him. And eight hours was a long time. He hated traveling but unfortunately his job demanded it. This was the first time he was coming to India and was quite looking forward to it. Back home in Nairobi he was familiar with Indians. He had also seen the odd Hindi movie with Mr. Shah, his boss so he wasn’t worried about his first visit to Mumbai.

He smiled at the diminutive air hostess who had her hands folded in the traditional  ‘Namaste‘ and acknowledged her greeting with a nod. Suddenly he was hit by a strange smell that he’d never smelt before – ah that must be the Mumbai smell I’ve heard about, he thought as he began to mop the beads of sweat that mysteriously appeared on his head. Mumbai was hot and muggy, quite unlike Nairobi, he thought as he made his way out of the airport.

A smartly uniformed man was holding a placard with his name. Good, thought Otiende, “I’m glad I’m being met at the airport.

“Salaam saab” said driver who saluted sharply and reached forward to grab the bag. Otiende sighed in contentment – that was the life. He settled into the plush back seat of his air conditioned taxi and watched the city go by. Mumbai was a blur of lights and traffic and people even at this late hour! He had never seen so many people in all his life and this was when the city was supposed to be asleep. He shuddered to think what it would be like in the day!

“Salaam saab,” said the door keeper of the hotel as he held open the car door for Otiende to step out. Inside the hotel he was again greeted by a Namaste and Otiende wondered if Indians ever shook hands in greeting.

The next morning, he got dressed and waited for his man in India to fetch him. He was told that he’d be escorted to the corporate office which was at the other end of town. When he reached the lobby, Sanjiv Shah was waiting for him. He held out his hand and Sanjiv reciprocated with a firm handshake. ” Good morning, Sir,” he said, “Welcome to Mumbai!”

“Ah! Finally,” said Otiende his face breaking into a warm grin. ” I was beginning to wonder whether you Indians ever touched one another at all! And to think there are so many of you? How did that happen?”

Sanjiv simpered in agreement. He was used to foreigners reacting like that. Most business travellers expected a shake hand in greeting and were quite thrown by the Namaste or Salaam. “No worries,” he explained, ” You’ll get enough handshakes in the office!”

On the long drive into the city, Sanjiv briefed Otiende about the city, the sights and the people. From time to time Otiende shook his head in disbelief. He also quite freely put his index finger into his nostrils and dug deep into its crevices. At first Sanjiv thought he was seeing things but again that huge big finger went slowly upwards and dug into the nostril.  Sanjiv was horrified at this but managed to hide his discomfort. Every time Otiende dug into his nose, Sanjiv politely turned away and wondered if he’d shaken the very same hand that had excavated the nose! He actually began to break into a sweat. How could he warn his colleagues not to shake the hand of Mr. Otiende? Luckily the phone rang and Sanjiv answered it. ” Haath mat choo…..” he hissed into the phone hoping his colleague at the other end understood what he meant. ” Sorry sir,” he apologised to Otiende, ” That’s just HO wanting to know how much longer we’d take.”

The rest of the  ride, Sanjiv kept looking furtively at his own hand. He was dying to get into the wash room and wash it clean. When they got into the office Otiende was amazed how none of the Staff shook his hand.
“Hey, man!” he said to Sanjiv, ” I thought you said people in the office shake hands.”

“Sir,” he said, “they normally do, but doing a Namaste is the more polite way of greeting your Boss!” and he excused himself to run to the wash room.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda