Francis

Tonight we’re out to dinner with D&V and Yakshi (Varnika’s cousin) and her (new) husband, Elvis the bread man.  We’re all one big family now.  What unexpected turns our lives take.

The restaurant is some miles away so we need a taxi. 

Francis is a fisherman/taxi driver friend of Dan’s and has ferried us around on a number of occasions.  Like most of the taxi drivers here, he has crucifixes and religious icons - Christian - in his car.  Goa has a large Catholic population resulting from the Portuguese conquest in 1510.  It only gained independence in 1961.  The legacy remains.

Looking over his shoulder at these figures, I’m immediately transported back in time to a party about 40-odd years ago.  A group of us are sitting round playing guitars and singing ……

I don’t care if it rains or freezes
long as I got my plastic Jesus
riding on the dashboard of my car

doing 90 it ain’t scary
cos I got the Virgin Mary
riding on the dashboard of my car

(Ed Rush and George Cromarty)

In the Folk tradition there are numerous versions of this song and many more verses.  There’s a slow, melancholic version sung by Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke.  Ours, aided no doubt by a few beers, was ‘enthusiastic’.  

Perhaps faith in a Divine traffic management system is one way to explain what seems to me to be a near death-wish approach to driving. Inevitably I spend part of the journey with my eyes closed.  Somehow we arrive unscathed.  As usual.