Adventures of a Young Professional: When Everybody Wants Your Money

It's the middle of the night, and I should get back to bed momentarily, but I thought I'd post a little bit more detail about my experiences yesterday before it is old history.

I ventured off into Delhi as a more experienced traveler, with much more of a concrete plan than the last time. I even used Google maps to map out everything that I was going to do in that day, and to make sure they were in a logical sequence. I knew to expect that the driver would speak little English, and I knew to expect, that even with my well thought out plans, things would most certainly not be exactly as I had envisioned them and that would all be part of the adventure.

The thing that struck me yesterday more than the day prior is how everyone was asking for money, in one way or another. As the cab was driving down the street, a little boy wearing a costume was dancing right in the middle of the street between the cars and knocking on people's windows for tips. Then there was a girl doing cartwheels in the street, among the traffic that wasn't going anywhere. The boy was right in front of me, and my driver rolled down my window for me, to guilt trip me into paying. I gave the boy an American dollar, as I didn't have any small denominations of Rupees on me. Then, this little girl comes up to my window with the saddest, cutest face. But I didn't have any small denominations of money on me, and I thought that the boy was here brother so they could share. My taxi driver looks at me and I tell him I don't have more. He hands me a rupee to give the to the girl. Then, four more children run up to the cab. They stick their hands in the window as I begin to close it, and their fingers are literally part way inside the window as my car starts to pull away. As the car started to move, I was worried for their safety. It was as if all the children from Slumdog Millionaire were running after me and I was turning them away. I felt guilty, but I cannot give money to everyone that asks me for it, and in this case, I simply didn't have any small denomination bills or coins on me.

There was another point in the trip where the driver took me to a souvenir shop, even though I hadn't asked to go to one. He said, "Don't worry, you don't have to buy." He took me to a small store, where I was the only patron there, with a sales person who was very high pressure. The whole experience was annoying, and I probably shouldn't have let the driver take me there in the first place. When I arrived, a gentleman showed me how kashmir rugs were made - sowing the thread one row at a time, someone works for five hours a day to complete them. Then, he ushered me to a back room where he had three helpers who would lay the rugs out before me. An assistant then brought me a cup of special kashmere tea -- which I did not dare touch! I was never considering buying a rug in the first place. What happened to consultative slaes where you at least try to sell the customer on a product they might be interested in?

He then took me into another room with scarves and silks. I did actually end up buying a small gift for someone, and I bargianed him down a couple hundred rupees, but I felt bad about the situation because I knew that I was still paying twice as much as I should. Even after I agreed to make a purchase, he also wouldn't leave me alone. He wanted to show me handicrafts and tea-shirts and ties -- and I had to be pretty emphatic about just wanting the one thing. I was doing him a favor by buying something and paying way more than I should have, and he still kept trying to guilt trip me. It didn't work.

Later, I was walking around by the India Gate, and more people kept coming up to me. Because I was one of the only white people among a crowd of Indians, I was an obvious target. A teacher pinned an Indian flag to my shirt and let me know she was raising money for a school. I gave a little money to her, and by that point I had smaller change. Before I returned to my car, there was a snake charmer waiting outside right by the door, demanding that I take a picture with his snake. Normally, I wouldn't fall for such a trap, but I figured it would be a decent photo opp, it would get him off my back, and since I had smaller bills now, I wouldn't have to pay much. As the picture was being taken, the snake charmer whispered in my ear, "one thousand rupees!" A thousand rupees is $20, which is absolutely a ridculous price to pay for a photo that didn't even turn out very well. This time I was very defensive.

"One hundred ruppes, not a penny more!" (Granted, this is still overpriced, but at least tolerable.)

He demanded 500 rupees, but I stood firm, gave him the smaller amount, and jumped back in my car. By that point, I was happy to go back to the guest house where I could relax in peace without anyone asking me for anything. This outing has taught me that I need to continue to stand firm and do a better job of saying no, but it's really tough traveling alone with a driver with no companionship, having to be rude and defensive to everyone that you meet.

Depsite all that, I did see some interesting historical sites. We started at Qutb Minar, the largest minaret in the world (actually it was closed for a private function, but I at least saw it on the outside). We then went on to Hamayen's tomb (the tomb of a Mogul Emperor). Both of these two sites are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Next, we saw Indira Gandhi's former residence where she was assacinated by her bodygard. Indira Gandhi is an interesting enigma to me, as she helped modernize the country, but some of her policies (such as forced sterilization and declaring a 'State of Emergency' to bolster her powers) were rather controversial. She was not referenced favorably in Rushdie's Midnight's Children, a novel which I read freshman year of college. We ended at the India Gate, which looks strikingly like the Arc de Triumph in Paris, and is a memorial to fallen Indian soldiers during World I. Below are photos of all the places that I saw on my tour.