《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 59 (127):印度女孩圖絲

I've made good friends with this seventeen-year-old Indian girl named Tulsi. She works with me scrubbing the temple floors every day. Every evening we take a walk through the gardens of the Ashram together and talk about God and hip-hop music, two subjects for which Tulsi feels equivalent devotion. Tulsi is just about the cutest little bookworm of an Indian girl you ever saw, even cuter since one lens of her "specs" (as she calls her eye-glasses) broke last week in a cartoonish spiderweb design, which hasn't stopped her from wearing them. Tulsi is so many interesting and foreign things to me at once—a teenager, a tomboy, an Indian girl, a rebel in her family, a soul who is so crazy about God that it's almost like she's got a schoolgirl crush on Him. She also speaks a delightful, lilting English—the kind of English you can find only in India—which includes such colonial words as "splendid!" and "nonsense!" and sometimes produces eloquent sentences like: "It is beneficial to walk on the grass in the morning when the dew has already been accumulated, for it lowers naturally and pleasantly the body's temperature." When I told her once that I was going to Mumbai for the day, Tulsi said, "Please stand carefully, as you will find there are many speeding buses everywhere."

我和十七歲的印度女孩圖絲成了好友。她每天跟我一塊兒刷洗寺院地板。我們每天傍晚一同在道場的庭園散步，談論神以及嘻哈音樂；圖絲對這兩者有着同等的信仰。圖絲大概是你見過的最可愛的印度書蟲女生，她的眼鏡上禮拜裂了個鏡片，裂成卡通片裏的蜘蛛網圖案，卻還是戴着它，這使她看起來更是可愛。圖絲集許多有趣而異國的特性於一身——十幾歲、野丫頭、印度姑娘、家中叛徒、對神十分癡迷，幾乎像女學生般地迷戀。她還說一口悅人、輕快的英語——只能在印度聽見的英語——收錄“splendid!”（美妙）、“nonsense!”（胡鬧）之類的殖民時期詞語，而且有時還創造出意味深長的句子，比方說：“清晨趁露珠未乾時走在草地上對你有益，因爲能自然又愉快地降低體溫。”有回我跟她說當天要去孟買，圖絲說：“請小心站立，你會發現到處都是開得飛快的巴士。”

She's exactly half my age, and practically half my size.

她的年紀是我的一半，身量也幾乎是我的一半。

Tulsi and I have been talking a lot about marriage lately during our walks. Soon she will turn eighteen, and this is the age when she will be regarded as a legitimate marriage prospect. It will happen like this—after her eighteenth birthday, she will be required to attend family weddings dressed in a sari, signaling her womanhood. Some nice Amma ("Aunty") will come and sit beside her, start asking questions and getting to know her: "How old are you? What's your family background? What does your father do? What universities are you applying to? What are your interests? When is your birthday?" Next thing you know, Tulsi's dad will get a big envelope in the mail with a photo of this woman's grandson who is studying computer sciences in Delhi, along with the boy's astrology charts and his university grades and the inevitable question, "Would your daughter care to marry him?"

圖絲和我最近在散步時經常談到婚姻。她即將邁入十八歲，這種年紀的女子被視爲是理所當然的婚姻候選人。依照預期——過了十八歲生日，她得穿上紗麗參加家族的婚禮，表示她已是成年女子了。那時將會有某位好嬸嬸在她身邊坐下，開始發問，一步步認識她“你幾歲啦？家庭背景呢？你父親是做什麼的？你申請哪些大學？你的興趣是什麼？你的生日是哪天？”接下來，圖絲的父親將收到一個大信封，信封內有張照片，是那名婦人在德里學電腦的孫子，還有這位男生的星座命盤、他的大學成績以及那不可避免的問題：“您女兒願不願意嫁給他？”

Tulsi says, "It sucks."

圖絲說：“爛透了。”