Meeting the medicine man

Him: You must be a doctor.

An old man, approached me from my left on a crowdy street. He was reasonably dressed, shaved and clean. His hands were not marked as he ever worked hard in his life. His back was straight and he walked well… Very uncommon for a country like India and perhaps even more uncommon for a city like Delhi, where approximately 10 000 new people come each day, to seek either jobs or other kind of fortune.

It looked like he appeared out of nowhere.

Me: I am not.
Him: You do look like a doctor.
Me: These days they say I also look like a Bollywood star (* I’m not kiddin’! *)

“I’m an animals doctor, a medicine man from Bhutan. I cure animals with prayers and herbs. Look around you, that cow and dogs over there eat plastic from the street. They get ill but nobody cares. Don’t be mistaken, there is no God in the temple across the street. God doesn’t live there. Only the man in a yellow dress is living there, waiting for his money. And he cares not about animals either. God is in the animals, but yellow dressed holy man is blind and can’t see it.

… I’m temporarily here, 4 months or so already. I was invited to teach here in Delhi and now I give the lessons to private students. Six days a week. On Sundays I’m free. They pay me 120 Rupees a day. With 60 Rupees I pay the room, 40 Rupees I spend for food. 20 Rupees I try to put aside for the ticket so I can return home and hopefully I’ll be able to buy some medicines for the animals.

… I would like to invite you for a cup of thee if you don’t mind.”

Me: Sorry, I have to catch the metro.
Him: I insist. We have such a nice conversation (* he was the only one talking so far *). I can see you’re a good man. I’d like it very much if you have a cup of thee with me.. please.
Me: Alright then. 10 minutes.

“In Bhutan we have no retirement incomes. I’m retired now ( * he was around 65 indeed *) but I still have to work. For a couple of days now I’m also trying to sale a jacket (* he didn’t have any jacket with him at all *). It’s a good jacket, my friend gave it to me. Hopefully it brings up enough money for the ticket so I can go home..

Old medicine man. *The man o the picture is not the man I met. Coincidentally, they look 95% alike though.

What kind of money?

Him: Are you an American?
Me: No, I’m not.
Him: British or French then?
Me: No, I’m not British nor French either.
Him: Then where do you come from?
Me: I come from the Netherlands.
Him: What kind of money do you have in the Netherlands?
Me: We use Euro.
Him: Ghhhuummm, yes, right. And what symbol is on the back side of your coins?
Me: Not sure. Portrait of a Dutch queen I guess.
Him: Can you show it to me?
Me: I don’t know if I have any Euro coins with me. Let me have a look.

I took my wallet and found 4 coins of 20 Euro cent each and one coin of 5 Euro cent in there. I put them on the table. All of them had lion with a sword on the back side.

Me: They must be from Finland. (* the old medicine man was turning the coins upside down, several times *), You may keep them if you wish.

Him: If you don’t mind. (* he puts them in his pocket at once. *)
… are you married?

Me: No, I’m not.
Him: Engaged?
Me: No, not engaged either.
Him: You should marry some day. You should have a wife and children. You’re a good man.
Me: Hmmm, well.. I might consider making a couple of kids when I get back home.
Him: Yeeeees. (* he puts his hand on mine and smiles *) … I’ll give you my e-mail address so you can let me know when your first child gets born. I’ll pray for your child’s health.
Me: Well, thank you. We’ll see…
Him: And, what’s your profession?
Me: I’m a make-up artist.
Him: An artist?
Me: Make-up artist.
Him: What does it… hmmmm… like painting the faces?
Me: Something like that.

Silence…

Medicine man cry

Him: … listen, I’m an old man and I feel very uncomfortable asking this, but would you like to have my jacket?

Me: I can’t do that.
Him: Why not?
Me: Because it’s now probably 43 degrees outside and the countries I’m going to visit might be even warmer then India.. so I’ll have to carry your jacket half year around the world for no reason at all, but for the sake of buying. I have loads of make-up and an ashtray with me. I think it’s heavy enough.

Silence….
I kept looking the old man’s face. He didn’t look back at me but lowered his look at the table and after just a couple of seconds, his lips formed a painful shape and tears come out of his eyes. He started to cry.

Silence….
It was strange feeling watching the old man cry.

Me: Burden on your shoulders must be heavy. Are you disappointed in your God?

Him: Even though it’s impossible to do Gods work, I pray and ask him for help every day. I’ll do anything for the animals.

Silence…

Me: Listen, I’ll pay our thee if it’s OK with you and I think I’ll go now.

The medicine man stood up together with me, without saying a word and walked behind me silently to the bar where I paid the bill, then we got outside. He then started walking the same direction with me once more.

Me: Are you going the same way?
Him: Yes, I have to go that direction too.

Silence… we kept walking.

Him (after a minute walking along with me): I do have to walk the same direction, but I’ll walk back down the street for a while if you don’t mind.

Me: No problem. Good bye and good luck to you.

The old medicine man turned away and disappeared in the crowd without looking back. The most definitely on his hunt for another tourist, who possibly might be even more generous then I was. Yet, he was 85 Euro cent and a cup of thee richer - and it cost him only a couple of tears. Earned in less then 10 minutes… which is fairly good for Delhi and far better than any bicycle rickshaw guy does, peddling and sweating in the heat.. I respect that.

The medicine man was an old and wise man. He was one of Delhi’s most excellent street scamming artists (so far I could see) and he was doing pretty well today.