I have continually thought that I was making a good recovery from sickness for about one week. In that time I have had no fever and have gone through the day without having abnormal toilet habits, but at night I have also had to wake up and use facilities several times. If I knew that I would get better I would have no concern, but I do not want to get worse. I stay so busy here that the loss of even a little sleep makes me miss things.
Yesterday I went to see Nandan again. He seems quite more disconnected from his tout than others – it is obvious that his man is trying to do him an unsolicited favor. To recap, Nandan had a store (silk, of course) but closed it and wants to liquidate stock.
His tout, who I have been calling Vijay for over a week and who I have seen and greeted probably every day, is really named Chand. I used the name “Vijay” in Nandan’s presense and no one can account for where the name Vijay came from, although Chand did affirm that I had used that name for him since meeting him. It came across as very strange to me that he would allow me to call him by another name every day for so long.
I have limited interest in Nandan’s silk – it is beautiful, the prices are lower than anyone else’s – but despite my repeated insistence that I will be in India for a long time and do not intend to buy anything until I leave, Chand seems to be interpreting something I say or do in such a way that there is some possibility of me buying things. I did take a lot of pictures of his silk – I like it now as a curiosity, and by American standards I have been rude in the forcefulness of stating my intentions not to buy anything. I mean that it is not what I said, but the directness and word choice of how I said it.
Nandan seems to understand me better. His place is huge, I think four floors and he says he owns it. I have no idea what I means to own real estate here, but I told him this was not done in the states. He offered to let me move in with his family and this appeals to me because I think he understands Westerners a bit more than most. He has some sort of business degree, he is about my age, he is studying for a test to get a license to be a tour guide, and he has a wife and daughter.
He told me that if he takes me somewhere that he will need to be careful because he does not have a license. I asked him what he meant. He said that it is not legal for an Indian to give a foreigner a tour without a state-government-issued picture ID license. I asked him what about people like Chand. Nandan said – in a roundabout way -that the officer would be able to differentiate social status and go after him for bribes.
I asked Nandan about the licensing procedure. He said that it involved heavy testing in Lucknow, which is several hours a way. His test is in April and he studies daily now and has been for a while. I asked him how many test-takers would pass the test. I asked in several different ways, and the best answer I got was a confirmation that not 30% and fewer than 20% would pass. One needs 40% correct answers to get an oral interview, and few people even go that far.
I asked Nandan if licenses are forged and he said no. I asked why not and he did not give me a straight answer but I think that he felt that the integrity of the system is not often compromised in that way. I asked Nandan if he had the ability to create a fake license and he indicated yes, but that he had not before thought about it.
Nandan told me more about his cousin who married the Italian girl. I think the consensus is that the Italian girl is nuts and that she married an Indian so that she could have a stable family. Nandan’s cousin goes to Italy yearly and comes back with cash from the girl’s family, who own some kind of factory there. I do not think Nandan cares for either of them. I have seen the girl around – she wears Indian dress but does look European to me. I have no idea whether anyone else in the house speaks English. I have seen I think four females – Nandan’s wife, daughter, the Italian, and someone else; and one other male, who could be anyone.
Nandan told me about local drug use. Alcohol and smoked marijuana are uncommon among locals, and opium is too expensive to be considered. Hash, pot, and opium are for tourists only. However, Nandan and Chand both very clearly differentiate bhang. I think this is ground marijuana intended for oral consumption when ground with raisins, cashews, other nuts and either eaten or mixed into a lassi, which is a milkshake. Nandan said that he tries it rarely but Chand said that practically all men past middle age consume it nightly to sleep, and many rickshaw walas use it during work. I asked if it had use among youth but both seemed to say it was for older people.
Nandan told me about requirements for an Indian to leave India. He said that person must have a nice house, about two million rupees ($45k) in the bank, a sponsor for the trip, and must complete an interview. I do not yet know what response I should have to this, but it at least confirmed to me that visiting abroad requires one only to be rich by Indian standards and not by Western standards.
I asked Nandan why he did not try to liquidate his stock through the internet. He immediately spoke of taxes, saying that they surpassed the asking prices of his merchandise. I asked him how anyone would know if he only sold a few things online, which is all he really needs to do. He seemed to think this would be impossible – he said that small stores do this, but I did not see how that related to him and online sales.
I cannot imagine why the Indian government would not promote sales of all kinds through the internet for anyone who was clever enough to close deals with ebay, paypal, craigslist or whatever. I wonder if this is really the case.
I planned to move in with him pending a confirmation call tomorrow (now today) for a Wednesday (now tomorrow) check in. He showed me the room, the toilet, the separate shower, a temple room which he said I would have to grant his mother access to, but which seemed quite separate from my quarters, and the rooftop view. It seemed great, and he wanted Rs 50 a night which would include a meal. The walk is from Assi Ghat, which at least initially will be a pain. It is somewhere under three miles from my school, but the big issue is that I cannot walk there via the ghats as my current schedule releases me from class at 9pm. The ghats – but not the roads – are dark at that time, so I will be taking the roads home.
This really should not be an issue. The walk should be on one of only a few of the main roads in the area. I have not made the trip yet, though, so I will have to consider more fully after I know the path.