Vinoth Raja, our driver, guide, and friend, took Sarah and me on a tour of Marina Beach on Sunday morning and included the fish market where local fishermen bring their catch to be sold by their families. As we drove slowly along, listening to the chatter and laughter, catching the sea breeze and the glistening fish ladled occasionally with salt water,
this lovely man noticed me taking pictures, grabbed his daughter, and gave us a warm, smile and a wave! As I look back on it, I’m embarrassed that we didn’t think to stop and get out of the car to return the greeting. The good news is that we’ll have the chance to do just that as I plan to go back once we move to Chennai and greet him properly–and to thank him for his spontaneous connection with a stranger from the other side of the world.
Author: David Hassler
David M. Hassler was fortunate enough to have become a relatively rare male Trailing Spouse when his talented wife Sarah accepted a job teaching music in the elementary division of the American International School in Chennai, India, in 2017. His role included, for more than three years there, serving as her everything wallah, but also allowed him time for exploring, discovering, and sharing new places, new faces, and new tastes around Chennai, throughout south India, and beyond. When the pandemic arrived, Sarah retired and they moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they continue to live and love life. David M. Hassler is a long-time member of the Indiana Writers Center Faculty and holds an MFA from Spalding University. His work has been published in Maize and the Santa Fe Writers' Project. He served as a Student Editor for The Louisville Review and as Technical Editor for Writing Fiction for Dummies. He is currently the Fiction Editor for Flying Island, an online literary journal. He is co-author of Muse: An Ekphrastic Trio, and Warp, a Speculative Trio, and future projects include A Distant Polyphony, a collection of linked stories about music and love, memories and loss; and To Strike a Single Hour, a Civil War novel that seeks the truth in one of P T Barnum's creations. He is a founding partner in Boulevard Press.
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