You dont want our money?
“The skinny but not gaunt man leans over the top of the bus and reaches down with one hand and hoists my backpacker’s pack up on the top of the bus. Next is Vasi’s — both of us can barely lift it above our heads, but he pulls it and disappears towards the front of the bus. When he hops down I’m ready with my tip, in the past enough is never enough and I want to tip generously so we dont need such an exchange. Vasi too has the same idea, but the man brushes away our money with a wave of his hand and goes to find someone else to help with their bags.
What? Isn’t India supposed to be full of pushy, greedy people who just see foreigners as money machines? Well, in some areas, that certainly feels true, like Agra, and outside of Puttaparthi, where people have made sole businesses around Western tourists and it seems that any real interaction is impossible. But, for most of our travels, Vasi and I have had only pleasant interactions. (Some of them are so pleasant, in fact that curious people full of questions get slighltly annoying and we pretend we don’t speak English, but that rarely works, because either they dont believe us and keep asking things like “marriage? Husband? do you have husband?” or I say, in Hindi “Angrazi teek se nahi ati hun” and then they just speak in Hindi.
Anyway, yeah, so we’ve rarely been overquoted for mangoes, or anything else for that matter. People seem happy with our modest tips, they give us proper directions, smile for our pictures, etc. Perhaps because we’re travelling during the summer when all the other whites in their right minds would never go to northern india (which is hotter than the south now) or because we’ve been going to pilgrimage sites, where many truly devout people go to bath in the Ganges, and many locals live to serve visiting saddhus, providing free meals etc.
Rather than being followed by many beggars, we’ve made friends with boys who just want to practice their English are delighted to show us around, exchange emails and help me sound out Hindi words. In one hotel this guy brought us clean sheets, we chatted about where he’s from etc, he just was so happy we were talking to him. But as the conversation died and he sort of paced around, I figured we were supposed to tip him, but he too refused, at least at first our money, he just wanted to talk. Maybe most visitors are rude, or else not many foreigners stay in the shitholes we’ve been staying in (about three of them we have called our “brothel”) or else he is just nice.
Tags: India, Travel
nabrams
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