The boys were scrubbed up and dressed cleanly in their one change of shorts and shirts. They had on their handsome, beautiful, awesome smiles.
Within a couple minutes of our cut-through, as the boys were looking about in awe at the Taj's opulence, a uniformed Indian worker came up and nervously said I must get the boys out. He was not pushy or demanding, but nervous and maybe embarrassed.
My boys could have been his sons.
I told him we were just walking through and would be out in a few minutes. He still seemed nervous and anxious.
Then a fancier dressed, pompous, managerial type came up and in a commanding voice said, "Get the boys out." I don't remember if there were patrons or security looking on. I do remember that I was pissed at what this guy and the Taj Mahal represented to me when stacked next to the boys and the orphanage.
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel
(Image by (From Wikimedia) Vikramjit Kakati, Author: Vikramjit Kakati) Details Source DMCA
To the big boss manager, in my lyrical but unharmonious voice, I said something like, "Listen Bera Saab, these are the best people you'll have walking through your fancy hotel today or any day. And these kids are walkin' through."
***
Now let me take you to my first day with the boys. It went something like this.
All the boys came out from their classrooms, 90+ as I remember, aged from about 8-18. They gathered on the paved area under part of the building that was open on two sides, where they would eat their meals together.
I tried to get them to line up in order and perform in cadence, like the exacting drill sergeant or good coach wants his team to do to look good. But there was little hope of that happening during our first bedlamistic sessions. Abject failure was I at that -- initially.
"Do you want to do British exercises?" which involved rolling arms and shoulders to build up a meager Bombay sweat, I asked on that first day.
"Or do you want to learn American exercises?"
Jumping and twirling, in their wavingly contagious way, they shouted "American! American! American!!!"
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