White Celebrities in India

I was advised before our trip to India that Alex and I, as white Americans, would be celebrities. I was skeptical at the time – not so anymore.

The first time we walked to the clinic (Thursday the 9^th), Alex and I were both aware of the immense amount of attention we were receiving. It seemed as if everyone I looked at was staring right back at me – and even when I caught someone blatantly starting, they were not dissuaded. I was bemused, but thought it was only because we were in Faridabad, a suburb 30 km from Delhi and unlikely to be hosting many tourists.

Through the past 3 weeks though, I have discovered the staring and attention is actually much worse at tourist sights – probably because the locals in these areas are tourists on vacation who have their cameras at the ready. For example, the other day sightseeing in Jaipur we visited a water temple. While peering through the monsoon rains at the palace seemingly floating in the middle of the lake, a group of teenage boys comes up to us and asks for “one picture”. “No, no, no!” we say, but their pleading looks and “pleeeases” cause us to relent. “Only one!” we say emphatically. So one of the boys comes and stands between Alex and I and wraps his arms around us. His friend takes the picture, and instantly another boy jumps in in his place. It was too late to say no at this point, and eventually all eight boys had their picture snapped with us. We quickly walked off in another direction, only to be bombarded by another group wanting pictures. Having enough at this point, we said “no” quickly and ran back to our rickshaw to escape the rain and our persistent Indian fans.

"Please, Ma'am, one snap?"

We have an innumerable amount of similar stories, but another that comes to mind was also in Jaipur, but at Amber Fort (pronounced Amer) - a beautiful maze of old buildings tucked away in the hills that used to be the center of the city before Jaipur was built. We had finished wandering through the fort, having been successful in avoiding any picture-taking encounters with Indian tourist groups, when a couple caught us by surprise. As there weren't any other people around to witness and want a picture as well, I conceded “one picture! Quick!” - but instead of having Alex and I pose with each person, the wife only wanted a picture of me with her husband! One picture turned into two so she could take it in better lighting, and Alex and I escaped, perplexed at why the wife would want a picture of her husband with his arm around a white woman.

Three weeks into our journey I am well accustomed to the attention – it is all basically harmless curiosity. It can be tiring to be constantly stared at, waved to, and yelled at, though, and sometimes I miss the anonymity of being able to walk on the streets of Seattle where I am one white woman in a sea of many.

• Christina