We did not sleep at Kumba Mela and decided to go back Saturday instead of Sunday. At the train station we had a problem changing our tickets’ dates. As near as I could tell it would take three queues to get an exchange or two to just buy a new ticket. As our train was leaving soon we opted to try to sneak onboard and play dumb – we were turned away despite Omar’s clever lies.
To escape the queues we bought second-class tickets. We checked out second class but it was crowded beyond our comfort so we went to three-tier AC as our original tickets covered.
Somehow our train was going to some town 20km from Varanasi, but not Varanasi. When we got to that town we transferred.
It seemed that the ticket collector deemed our tickets invalid due to longer route, rather than due to having one in an expensive car on the next day and one in the cheap car on this day. In any case I knew that transferring train to train is not allowed and somehow we had gotten on a wrong train.
As usual as mass of officials got involved with a Sikh leader being the best – but really unable – English speaker. When we got of the train some new guy appeared from nowhere telling us that the Sikh was a good man. At this instant all officials crowding around us turned their backs, though they remained within arms’ reach. This new guy wanted a bribe of Rs 100 for the Sikh.
I looked at Omar, paid the bribe because I knew that I was technically wrong and because I was tired and wanted to go, and after money passed from this man to the crowd I found he was an autorickshaw driver. We left.
I have an appointment to return and look at silk today with the last tout who appealed to me, a nutty man called Vijay. He brought me to Assi Ghat and I met this MBA there called Nandan who has more silk.
These two have been insistent that it is a favor for them to tell me the content of various cloth products, but despite inquiry from multiple angles I have been unable to extract an answer as to why I should want one fabric over another.