rickshaw fun

Yesterday I had the most random rickshaw ride that really felt like something from a movie. So, I leave the office and hop in a rickshaw (my driver had the day off because it was a holiday, why I was working is a whole other story). The ride to my house isn't far, maybe 10 minutes. About half way there I realize that I left my keys at the office. Now, I haven't reached the point in my Hindi classes where I can say "I forgot my keys, please turn around and go back, then wait for me and then we'll take off again". So there was a ridiculous amount of gesturing. It started with "u-turn", then "straight", then "no really, straight", then "u-turn"...you get the idea. By the time we got back to the office he figured it out and waited for me, I ran in and got my keys and ran out then went home.
While he was driving me he asked if I was American, I said yes.
So, he drops me off by my house and I pay him way too much (read: $1.50) because he took me back and forth. Then I hear him calling "ma'am", I turn around and it turns out that my iPod had fallen out and he was bringing it to me. Such honesty! He then points to himself and says "Muslim" as he is handing it over. He wanted me, as an American, to understand that Muslims are good and honest people because we (Americans) are perceived in the world as hating all Muslims. It was such a nice moment. Luckily I don't buy into the whole "all Muslims are bad people" theory; and I hope that he got from that brief interactions with me that not all Americans are filled with hate. I may have come of as extremely flighty (I mean really, I forget my keys and my iPod within 10 minutes, what is wrong with me?), but hopefully I came off as nice too. I suppose it is only appropriate that on Gandhi's birthday we would have such a moment.
And thus ended an eventful and enlightening rickshaw ride.