《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 59 (127):印度女孩图丝

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."

我和十七岁的印度女孩图丝成了好友。她每天跟我一块儿刷洗寺院地板。我们每天傍晚一同在道场的庭园散步，谈论神以及嘻哈音乐；图丝对这两者有着同等的信仰。图丝大概是你见过的最可爱的印度书虫女生，她的眼镜上礼拜裂了个镜片，裂成卡通片里的蜘蛛网图案，却还是戴着它，这使她看起来更是可爱。图丝集许多有趣而异国的特性于一身——十几岁、野丫头、印度姑娘、家中叛徒、对神十分痴迷，几乎像女学生般地迷恋。她还说一口悦人、轻快的英语——只能在印度听见的英语——收录“splendid!”（美妙）、“nonsense!”（胡闹）之类的殖民时期词语，而且有时还创造出意味深长的句子，比方说：“清晨趁露珠未干时走在草地上对你有益，因为能自然又愉快地降低体温。”有回我跟她说当天要去孟买，图丝说：“请小心站立，你会发现到处都是开得飞快的巴士。”

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

她的年纪是我的一半，身量也几乎是我的一半。

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?"

图丝和我最近在散步时经常谈到婚姻。她即将迈入十八岁，这种年纪的女子被视为是理所当然的婚姻候选人。依照预期——过了十八岁生日，她得穿上纱丽参加家族的婚礼，表示她已是成年女子了。那时将会有某位好婶婶在她身边坐下，开始发问，一步步认识她“你几岁啦？家庭背景呢？你父亲是做什么的？你申请哪些大学？你的兴趣是什么？你的生日是哪天？”接下来，图丝的父亲将收到一个大信封，信封内有张照片，是那名妇人在德里学电脑的孙子，还有这位男生的星座命盘、他的大学成绩以及那不可避免的问题：“您女儿愿不愿意嫁给他？”

Tulsi says, "It sucks."

图丝说：“烂透了。”