If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

But be careful if you're in India. It might be misinterpreted...

This afternoon, on the way to collect the kids from school, I saw something new...

When our car stops at red lights, I am used to people coming up to it, trying to attract my attention. Sometimes it's kids selling magazines; sometimes it's women, in dirty clothes and holding a baby partly clothed in rags; sometimes it's urchin children. They knock on the car window in the hope that I will pity them, wind down the window and give them some money. The urchin children usually repeat the mantra, "No Mama, No Papa, No Chapatti" (My friend Kehi tells me the correct reply to this is "No Country Club Membership"). But today the person trying to attract my attention didn't fit into any of these categories.

While waiting for the lights to change on Lodhi Road, a lady wearing a long woolen shawl walked elegantly down between the rows of cars. Her face and clothes were clean, she was wearing lipstick and her hair had been brushed. Between the fingers of her left hand she had notes folded lengthways, 10 rupees, 20 rupees, 50 rupees. Alongside every car she clapped her hands once. After she had passed our car, I asked Raju if she was a beggar. Yes Ma'am, he says, she's a beggar. But, I say to Raju, she doesn't look like a beggar, and she doesn't act like one. The beggars knock on the car window and, because we're white (therefore wealthy, and possibly a pushover), they wait until they are sure we won't give any money. Raju waits a moment. Ma'am, he says, she's not a beggar. And loading as much innuendo into his voice as he could muster he added, Ma'am, I think you know what she is.

Oh, I say, just a little surprised. I check my watch, it is 3pm. Isn't it early, I say, for the ladies of the night to be out? Raju replies with a laugh, Ma'am, she isn't a lady. *

The lights change and he drives on, still chuckling to himself. After a minute or so he looks in the rear view mirror, catching my eye. Ma'am, he says, she was fresh. I take this to mean not all the clapping ladies of Lodhi Road are as pretty, and wholesome looking, as this girl.

* However, I would put money on her being a woman. I've seen hijras (the Indian third gender, neither man nor woman) and this lady was incredibly feminine compared to them.