a nice night

I learned more information about any of the enumerators in the hours I spent Friday evening with Praveen, who calls himself Kevin. Hospitable as anyone I know, Kevin had been offering and offering to take me around Hyderabad, his most recent offer being to take me to a place where I could get the haircut I so desired. I finally took him up on it, and Amy came to get Henna. During my haircut – a good one – Kevin and I spoke mostly about getting jobs and the religious and cultural makeup of India and the US. Which was pretty cool in itself – I hadn't had such an intelligent conversation with any of the enumerators before that.
Then the haircut ended, and we still had at least an hour to wait. So Kevin, Raj (who also came but whose English isn't great and tends to sit and text message and get call after call from someone or other), and I sat on a railing, then under an overhang in plastic chairs when the rain started. We chatted about movies, jobs some more, Hyderabad some more, the enumerators and their personal lives, and finally our own personal lives.
This might seem pretty mundane, but for me among the enumerators, it was a breakthrough. I really like these guys and girls, but our conversations usually feel somehow guarded and/or blocked to me.
Kevin helped us catch a cab each way, and his persistence was great to watch and take part in. We both stood out in the rain looking for the few cabs were empty and agreed to turn into our parking lot, laughing at the fact that even a foreigner wasn't enough to attract them. But one gave in to my moneyed looks eventually, and we had our ride home. Goodnight to Kevin and Raj, dropped Amy at ASCI, and I was off with my new driver to buy some expensive shirts in the rain.