Narinder Singh

Chandigrah is a "modern" Indian city serving as a transportation hub to other Indian Himalayan destinations. Most backpackers don't stop in Chandigrah because by Indian standards its expensive and there isn't a whole lot to see. We chose a one night stay in Chandigrah because I wanted to see the fascinating rock garden. Karma seemed to be working in our favor because we were blessed by bumping into Mr. Narinder Singh. At first you might think of Mr. Narinder as just another heckling Indian but there was something more about his kindness that made us disregard our Indian generalizations and trust this old man.

Born in 1936 Narinder is 74 years old. The average Indian barely makes it to 60 so Narinder was eating his veggies and practicing his yoga. You couldn't help but love his charismatic energy, toothless smile, bottle cap glasses, and tightly tied purple turban representing his sic religion. He walked at the pace of a wall street businessman and was as recognized as Brad Pitt.

When we first met Narinder when we were looking for a place to stay. Overtired from another hellish train ride and sore from carrying our packs around town we weren't giving him much of a chance. After his first presentation of an information booklet and a generous favor of writing in his notebook filled of hundreds of letters from foreign tourists, we agreed to meet him for tea at the bus stand later that night.

After only a couple minutes of sipping chai with this old man we realized we had been blessed by the tourist Gods. He pulled out article after article that had been written about him over the years. The articles were about Narinder's so called "hobby" of helping foreign tourists around Chandigrah while getting them the lowest price for everything they purchase. The cost of his services? The sheer pleasure and enjoyment he got out of putting a smile of the face of a foreign tourist. He was the first Indian we met that actually enjoyed helping us out at no cost or benefit to himself. The next day at 9am sharp he was at our doorstep overly excited to show us his city. He showed us where to buy the cheapest bus tickets, the cheapest beer, got us free admission to the rock garden, presented us with numerous gifts, all while teaching us Hindi on the way. He also managed to slip in a quick visit to the town's Bollywood office where they tried to recruit us to be in the next big Bollywood film. At the end of the day we were exhausted. We had seen more of Chandigrah then perhaps we wanted but we were entertained by our new friend. Unsure of what I should do with the numerous gifts I had received (an information booklet, a satchel, a guava, a banana, a pink KFC balloon, and an orange) I made one gift presentation of my own- an American one dollar bill :) At 8pm we were shown to our bus and just like that Narinder Singh left our lives just as fast as he came. We were touched by this old Indian man, he left his footstep in our hearts and a smile on our faces.