India - My Life within and without

Recently my next door apartment was taken over by new tenants. I saw a big guy and an old lady. She is probably 60+ and from the day first they moved, both mom and son tried to speak to me. I am not used to someone poking in my privacy, so I gave a neutral smile and avoided every time they passed by me. Well then, even when this Hispanic son excitedly told me that its first time he has actually talked to an Indian person. I raised my brows, gave hee hee kinda look and a neutral smile....well he was off my view from that day.

But, his mom was never away from my eyes. Every single time I opened my main door, she was somewhere around and she spoke to me in her funny tone and her language, Spanish. As I don't understand or speak the language, I started ignoring her. She never ignored me and always talked to me about 'something'. Luckily I never felt eve tease kinda look from them and neither I felt creepy look from her son, otherwise I would have understood her expressions well. Neither she nor her son had any creeping expression, they were just probably curious about me, or something like that.

Few days back, I saw her around my bus stop, holding a shopping cart(yeah, tell me about it) She was talking to some unknown lady. That lady looked at me and gave me smile when my neighbor stopped her talk with other lady and spoke to me about 'something'. Obviously, I didn't understand a thing but I just couldn't ignore, and finally, first time gave her smile.

From that day and until today she, my neighbor, as usual says something and I just give her a smile, a smile of assurance, a smile of understanding and a smile of recognizance. I still dont understand her at all, but she is part of my living when I open my main door, and when I pass by her...language has not stopped us from being "someone' for each other.

Vim