Afternoon at a Cafe

I'm sitting at a cafe (one of the more western style ones in town) and I hear music coming from down the road. As it gets louder, I see it's coming from a small, decorated wagon being pulled by a cow. A man and woman are walking beside it and spot me sitting on the porch of the cafe. This is the moment I get "the eyes." Oh the eyes! The coaxing, pleading, desperate, (for lack of a better word) puppy dog eyes.

They approach the cafe porch and hold out something that looks like a receipt booklet. Clearly they want me to pay for something, but I don't know if it's a ride on the cow, a picture with the cow, a kiss from the cow or maybe a chance to milk the cow. I shake my head (as I've gotten used to doing after only a day in Bombay) trying to let them know that a look at their decorative, musical, cow pulling wagon is enough for me.

The cafe waiter comes out and I assume asks them to leave (they speak in Hindi). As the woman backs away, and he is now working on convincing the man to leave me alone, a child approaches me from behind, with the same receipt booklet in hand. I can't help but laugh. It almost seems as if the man was distracting the waiter so that the child could sneak around back to me. How long will this cycle continue?!

The waiter hears me laughing, turns around to find the child next to me begging and attempts to shew the youngest of the salesmen away. He smiles at me almost saying, "This is what I get for working at a cafe where many foreigners come to!"