I’ve been making a lot of new friends this week while I work.
This is one of the more joyful photos I’ve taken.
This gentleman is from India (having immigrated 20 years ago), and we started talking. He has peanuts in his pocket, and while it’s not legal to feed the pigeons in the square any more, he does seem to enjoy helping other people feed them. But only one at a time, and only while they’re standing on your head. Sometimes more than one at a time.
He’d see someone trying to get a photo of the pigeons, or trying to commune with them, walk over, offer them a peanut, and show them how to hold it just so, between thumb and foreginger. Or, he’d take a peanut in his hand, attract a pigeon or two, and place them on people’s heads. “Have your camera ready!” he’s scold them, in his Indian accent.
We talked for some time, and at one point he asked me, “So, tell me, what is it that you eat, you Americans? There must be some mineral. What is it you eat that makes you think of creative things like jet planes, computers, the internet? What is it?”
I didn’t know what to tell him.