Just when you think you have built around your yourself an unbreakable plexiglass wall of cynicism and denial, this happens: Tajik Jimmy. More of him here. And here. And here. You get the picture.
In my travels, I have always found the more "unsophisticated" people are, usually further away from the dazzling cities that I so love, the more genuine they are. Look at Jimmy - he has no self-consciousness. He is a poor country bumpkin from a community that faces derision and hostility in its former Motherland. But look at the dude when he's at it. Phew!
And the quotes in the story are incredibly poignant. "Do they have a cafeteria there?", his brother asks of St. Petersburg, brimming with fraternal affection for his malnourished kin.
I wish I had taken up Boloroo, my Mongolian guide, who offered to find me a pretty bride with a herd of goats and sheep. "You're too old" she said, forthright and concerned, more so than even my family. Sigh.
2 comments:
Tajik Jimmy is a gem of a find. Would totally agree that his total uninhibited enjoyment of the bollywood song was totally awesome. Also - how universal is the bollywood offering - that a Tajik can enjoy this song as much as the boy serving chai at some dusty village in India.
On a separate note - am freaked that I know the lyrics for the Jimmy Jimmy Aaja song ....together with my newly rediscovered enthusiasm for antakshari - I have to be firmly placed in the 'unsophisticated' category of your acquaintances - would you still venture to call us lot friends?. Good to know you think of the unsophisticated lot as being genuine tho!!!
wow - just read the whole article properly. My head seems to agree with the journalist who said this is more a sad story than happy story - what happens when this transient fame fades away I ask myself. But then when I read the last sentence - I realised why he will always be happier than I will ever be with my analysis and intellectualisation of things .... he lives life with his heart. Hmmm.
And yes - at 38 - he is 2 yrs older than me .....it is strange how the circumstance you are in makes mockery of using things like age for comparison. I still do the you know so and so was partner by 30 and so and so wrote 2 books by 32 .... - and then I look at the deeply etched lines on his 38-yr old face .... and all those numbers and badges seem meaningless.
Hey - Manic Mom says you do not even need to travel physically to have interesting posts.
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