Since my boyfriend’s constant pleading for me to become more social, I’ve changed quite a lot. Now I engage with a lot more people, and it’s because of his influence that I started offering voice consultations too.

I sometimes help him out in a cafe where he works as he’s the one that manages it most of the time. So I got to know many people in this way.

In this post I’m going to tell you about the three people that I’m especially fond of seeing every day.

The first one is Dinu’s (my boyfriend’s) friend. He’s working in the hotel where we’re staying, at the reception. He’s only seventeen, but because his relative is the owner of the hotel, he’s allowed to gain practice as a receptionist.

The first time I heard his voice was when I was on a call with Dinu. I thought it was a girl’s voice as it was so gentle. When I finally met him I saw a handsome, very thin boy, always smiling and making people laugh as a result of his innocent nature.

He’s a virgin, always dreaming of meeting the one. He listens to romantic songs in the evening, which make him sad as he’d rather listen to them with someone. He’s the sweetest person ever, having absolutely no duality in him.

He doesn’t even understand how people can lie. Because of this kind of nature Dinu (my boyfriend) would play with him to get him believe what is not true, and eventually the kitchen lady told him not to believe everything Dinu said; so now he has his guard up whenever Dinu tries to convince him of something:)

One day Dinu and some other people decided to play with him yet again. That happened before his guard was up.

Dinu asked him if he liked one chubby lady working in the ayurveda section of the hotel. Suman (let’s say that’s his name) said no.

Dinu said, in response, that it’s a shame because the lady was in love with him. Suman got alert, asking if it’s really true. He said it’s definitely true, and Dinu also gave him a few tips about her, like that she likes when men wear black.

For one week he wore black, even borrowing a black shirt from Dinu as he was running out of clothes of this color. He would hang out in places where she would be, and eventually the lady started suspecting that something was up.

Suman finally found the courage to ask her if what people told about her feelings towards him was true. She said that she loves him as a brother. Even now he’s sad about it.

When I see him I feel happy as he has such sweet and good energy about him. I wish that innocence always stays with him, but I know this rarely happens.

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Another person that I enjoy seeing every day is a midget man whose skin is very dark and he’s around 35. He doesn’t have a home as he’s not fully mentally there; he lives on temple grounds and never asks money from anyone, yet people donate food, money and clothes to him.

At first I thought he’s some kind of weirdo, always trying to talk to foreign people. But my boyfriend explained that he only says “hi” to them, and if tourists respond, he asks “how are you?” and if they ask him the same question, he says “thank you”.

He has no ulterior motive. He just likes to say hi to people.

He comes every day to the cafe as Dinu gives him free milk tea. He just sits there quietly, drinks the tea for a long time and carefully folds the tissue that came on the plate. He sometimes shows in signs that my boyfriend is crazy if he sees him dancing to the music in a weird way to make me laugh, or pestering me to get me to lose my temper;)

Although he’s over 30, he still has that childlike innocence about him. And if someone asks anything personal, he gets shy and sits there quietly, folding the tissue. I just love seeing this man every day.

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Another person that I love seeing every day is a Kashmiri man who has a jewelry shop nearby. He’s very tall, much taller than people here, so he looks like a giant. But he’s so gentle, he has no aggression in him.

His eyes are green, which is sometimes the case with Kashmiri people. He’s around 50. He comes to drink lemon tea, and always ends up talking about Kashmir.

I find that Kashmiri people always do it, saying how beautiful Kashmir is. He’s no exception; whenever some service in this place in Kerala is done sloppily, he points out that in Kashmir things are not like that; that they always provide good service to customers.

When only one lemon is squeezed for his lemon tea, he says in Kashmir lemons are much cheaper, so they squeeze a few for tea. When touching avocados in a cafe, he remarked how hard they were, not like in Kashmir, where they’re much cheaper too.

I saw him once on our hotel grounds, checking plants, telling as though to himself, as though to staff, that in Kashmir they look after their plants much better, making sure they are always watered and kept tidy.

One day he showed me and Dinu “snow in Kashmir” videos that he filmed when he was at home. Our patience was really tried, as he had many videos showing just that – snow in Kashmir.

But I’m always happy to see his man, because he has, like the previous two persons, no guile in him. He’s still like a child, having that good light energy which is so rare among adults who make it heavy by the lack of forgiveness.

So these are the three lovely people that I like to see every day when I’m in my boyfriend’s cafe.