The Mystery of the Broom

This a tale that can’t be swept under the rug, so to speak... cough. Recently there have been 2 encounters involving various brooms that I’m determined to get to the bottom of. A couple of nights ago a group of women came to the house to ask for some pictures I took while at a temple celebration. While we spent 10 minutes actually getting to the point where I understood what they were asking for, one woman peeked inside my bedroom and pointed at my broom, which was propped against the wall. She got my attention and while still pointing at the broom, began jabbering in Punjabi. I gave her my usual response when people speak to me in either Hindi or Punjabi- “Uhhhhhh.” She shrugged and then walked over grabbed the broom, laid it on the floor, and then pushed it under the bed. I was confused. But I’m confused a lot here so I just let it go. I figured it was just another random misunderstanding with a local. But random it was not. This morning while I was teaching my advanced English student, Aj, there was an old man who walked by the center on his way to do probably nothing. Then he stopped suddenly, staring at our two brooms propped up against the wall in the center. He started yelling at AJ and eventually AJ sighed, got up, and went to lay the brooms flat on the floor. I now knew this was no coincidence. The old man, placated, then shuffled of smiling serenely to sit with the group of men who hang around at the shop next door to us all day, drinking chai, gossiping, and spitting. I haven’t mentioned Indian spitting yet- spitting is a very common occurrence here. But I don’t mean just a little saliva, I mean the spitting that Leonardo Dicaprio taught Kate Winslet to do in Titanic. They hock a big one up, then let it loose wherever they feel like. The other day on the bus, a man leaned over Olivia to spit out the window- she was mortified. If you come to india, look out for flying lugis. From what I’ve heard and read, it seems like they see it as a healthy thing to do, which I guess makes sense- better out than in I suppose! Only the men do it in public but don’t think for a second the women don’t behind closed doors- our landlady has let loose some impressive ones. Anyway, after the offending brooms were laid on their sides, I was able to ask AJ what in the world was going on. He shrugged and said, “Old people like to have brooms laying down.” After seeing how completely non-plussed I was by this explanation, he promised to ask his parents. I wonder how many idiosyncracies there are in our culture that we never think to ask about... hm. He’s invited Olivia and I over to his house on Sunday for some good home cooking so I have resolved to get to the bottom of this mystery then.

Side note: Our land lady told us to call her Maharani, which we of course have been doing. But after wondering why people start giggling every time we call her that we discovered that Maharani means “Great Queen.” I think we’ve been duped here…