Ben Franklin, George Washington, and some villagers from Madhya Pradesh

On the bus trip up to the Ajanta caves, I am questioned by some villagers on holiday from Madhya Pradesh. In the course of questioning, I show them a hundred dollar bill and a one dollar bill. They are enthralled and snap photos of the currency on their cell phones. They pass the bills around and carefully return them to me after each person has had a chance to examine it.

At one point, a man asks, pointing to Ben Franklin, who he is. In a land of epic heroes and Mahatma Gandhi, I have trouble describing Ben Franklin’s importance as a statesman, inventor, philosopher, and party beast. I remember the image of Franklin that all American children have as a man who flew a kite with a key at the handle to conduct lightning. Then I remember the movies of Satyjit Ray where lightning instilled terror in the villagers on the plains. They’d probably think he was the local idiot. I am left dumbfounded.

Luckily, they ask about George Washington and the White House. Easy one. He’s the father of the United States of America. If he’s the father of the U.S., why is he on the one dollar bill instead of the hundred like this Ben Franklin guy? Again, I was stumped.

As for the White House, the villagers were not impressed. Having seen the Taj Mahal and other Mughal palaces, the White House seemed to be a mud hut like the ones in their village.

Pondering these questions later, I felt comfort and a certain Yankee pride, despite the fiasco of the last six years, in knowing that the father of the U.S.A. was on the lowest monetary denomination and that the White House was no Taj Mahal. These were emblems of the common man, which is something the communist parties around the world never understood. Having witnessed the deification of Che Guevara in our drive through Kunnar, I have doubts that the D.Y.F.I. will ever understand it.

Posted at 09:00AM Jan 04, 2007 by D Bums Comments[0]