Tourists

An Indian tourist was staring, not particularly discretely, at me and Oliver for about two minutes. I knew she was going to approach us, but I thought she would just come up, pinch he cheeks and go. You know, our usual interaction with strangers.

To my surprise, here's how our interaction went...

Tourist: excuse me ma'am, if you don't mind I would like to hold your baby.
Me: you have got to be kidding.

Asking to hold a strangers baby? Why? Seriously, why?

When we were in a national park in Bharaptpur, at least five people asked us to either take Oliver's photo, or have their photo taken WITH HIM. No, sorry. Was always our response. One couple even got upset; the husband wanted to know why his wife wasn't allowed to take Oliver's photo. You have to ask?

When we were at the Taj Mahal, Andy was walking hand-in-hand with Oliver out in front of him. A stranger walked up to Oliver, placed his hands under his armpits and attempted to lift him up without even ACKNOWLEDGING Andy. Andy and I both yelled "No!" and the man sheepishly released oliver and slinked away...again without even looking or speaking to Andy. Amazing. I would have asked "on what planet is it okay to pick up a strangers baby without even making eye intact to see if it's okay?" But apparently it is totally acceptable here in India.

Now not only do we try to be present in our surroundings so we can learn something about them, we have to be on alert to run interference for Oliver and delflect not only the aggressive paparazzi, but the man-handlers. Only in India.