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Ride on

Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Make your own road Laura Navarro Lara

When Laura Navarro Lara came to India, she had an India of people, gods, flowers and saris in her mind. Her friends recommended India when she was looking for a job as a Spanish teacher in Africa, South America and Asia. The tall, willowy Laura reali sed that there were many Indias. What strikes her here is the class consciousness people tend to have. “I noticed the way Indians treat waiters or anyone who is considered to be doing labour work.”

As a foreigner and a woman, she finds the way men tend to look problematic. “Especially in crowded areas like marketplaces or bus-stops, there would be groups of men just staring.” She traces this to the way foreigners generally tend to dress. “There might be more skin visible but this is not done with the intention to provoke or invite attention.”

Coming to sexual harassment on the streets, she remarks that while Indians tend to brush aside or ignore cases, women in Europe tend to blow the slightest incident out of proportion. She laughs when she says that Indians are not punctual. “When you tell them 4 p.m., they’ll come at 5 p.m.!” She also finds Bangaloreans very violent on roads. “If somebody grazes your vehicle, people start reacting violently.”

Laura who got tired of depending on auto-rickshaws, rides a two-wheeler. “I never rode in Spain and it’s not that bad driving here. I am learning the tricks of finding your own gaps!” As a Spanish teacher, she finds that slowly, the language is finding its space and importance in India — given the prominence of French and German language courses in the city.

“Spanish is widely spoken in 32 countries.” She finds that people associate Spain with salsa, Spanish and tapas. “Just as I thought India is just about Bharathnatya and Lord Ganesh. It is much more than that.” Laura is also attending Hindi classes. “Teaching a language is teaching a culture. Language is also one projection of that culture.”

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