It's the morning after the party, and I've been holed up in my room, drowsing and casting my mind back over the evening, in turns grinning at some funny detail and blinking back tears of gratitude and endearment.
To begin with, we had a short Rotary meeting to which everyone except Udaya Mani Pradhan was late. When they were half an hour late, you could see the steam coming out of his ears. Udaya is a punctual man in a whole culture of late men. He told a story from when he was incoming district governor. The reigning governor was over fifteen minutes late coming back from lunch, so Udaya started the meeting without him. Mouths fell open. Gasps were audible. I am not sure when it dawned on me that in Udaya, I was dealing with an extraordinary man--of any culture--but it's been over and over confirmed.
One of the things they do here is nominate someone to praise or thank whenever such is in order. Amar, one of the more dignified of the Daj Rotarians, rose to say the club's farewell to me. I love this about Rotarians everywhere. At any time, one of them can rise to give a speech and just do it. And one thing I've learned about myself on this tour of the world is that it's something I enjoy, myself. In Kalimpong, I had to talk for 30 mintues while Tapan's driver went for his LCD projector, brought it in, and hooked it up. Amar's speech was funny, kind and moving...he said that since I have become family, then I have to come back here to them. Then they presented me with two gifts.
In this part of the world, it is bad taste to open one's presents on the spot. It's more discreet to open them in the privacy of your home, so that if your face shows any kind of disappointment or lack of appreciation, it will never offend the giver. So I tucked the presents away with the others and thanked them very much. Later, at home, I found a pair of wooden carved dragon wall hangings, a brass bell (no doubt to remind me of the clock tower bell that rings every hour thanks to this Rotary Club), and a Nepali hat. A veritable SHOWER of lovely gifts, and no disappointment on MY face.
Then they sprung their surprise on me. They came forward with a yellow scarf of honor and made me an honorary Rotarian! I don't think I have ever felt as honored as I did at that moment. When I was first writing back and forth with Father Van, the Jesuit priest who helped me make the decision that I could just come here and all would be well, he told me he was an honorary Rotarian. I thought it meant they liked him and I harbored fantasies that they might like me and make me an honorary Rotarian. When Freya Stark was traveling with the Bedoin tribes in Arabia, they made her an honorary man so she could sit in on the men's counsels and eat dinners with them instead of being relegated to the women's tent. My idea about being an honorary Rotarian was about that precise.
Then I sat in on a board meeting where they were discussing who would be named honorary Rotarians this year, and I realized it was a MUCH bigger deal than I'd thought. They have a limited number and they are one-year appointments, and there is some discussion about who will be nominated. At that point, I decided I was lucky they were so positive about having me around every time they lifted a glass or staged an event or had a meeting. They did not try to foist me off on the women's auxiliary. And they responded positively also to my efforts to get an email group, a group calendar and an easily updated web site working for them.
So when Udaya read the citation making me an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Darjeeling, I was just absolutely dumbfounded. "Words cannot express..., etc." is about as far as I get. What I love about this group is the way they have taken me in as I am...I am just myself, and that seems to be fine with them. I can't tell you how rare this is in the world. When I went to New Caledonia, one of the members was openly hostile and suspicious of me. Who was I to come parading into their midst...and before the official start of my Ambassadorial year!
Then Prolad showed the video he's made of the Health Camp we gave and I can't wait to get it online. It is really so cool. And you know the club's accidental techie LOVED every minute of making it.
The party got going after that, and it was just a really uproarious and fun party at that. Sudeep played a bunch of oldies but goodies in English on the piano and people sang at the tops of their lungs...Country Roads, She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain and others. In between, the disc jockey played Hindi, Nepali and English songs for dancing. At one point, we played this game I loved during the Anne's evening a few weeks back. One team starts with a song and then, when they stop, the next team has to start a song with the last syllable of the previous team's song. And they all know so many songs, they can just jump up and belt them out.
This time, they divided the boys against the girls, and it was hilarious. My dentist was the moderator, but he kept making up rules in the middle and then changing them when he felt like it. It was really quite funny. Jit's wife, who has been a film actress and a model, was Ms. Johnny-on-the-Spot when it came to different songs. Diwaker went around filming with his video camera when he wasn't playing the guitar or dancing or being Mr. Entertainment.
And we danced and danced. When none of the women would take to the floor, the guys would get out there and just dance themselves. And unless I was prostrate from the last twelve dances, I'd be out there with them. I could say that I don't know WHEN I've had such a good time, but actually I can. It was about three weeks ago at the Anne's evening. And before that? Well, I remember one party when I was in college...
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