12.4. Another Day of... WORK

Instead of running around town I've slept till 12am got up, fed my superstomach and well, starting summarizing 50 pages. Took me a few hours and now I'm done. Gonna read through the manual of TBF and that's it pretty much for today. You see, during days of work I don't have much to write about since I do not get exposed that much to, say the "external environment"... just sitting in my hut instead.

Theeeeerefoooooore I'm going to write a little about the topics mentioned yesterday, which are precisely, you guess... bargaining with rikscha drivers and the labour unions. Unfortunately I realized that my knowledge is a little unclear about the latter. All I know is that the caste system operates like the guilds used to in the medieval ages, as people used to have the same or similar jobs within a caste. Since the cast system is slowly retreating I've not much of an idea how this is now. Nevertheless I can say labour unions seem to be pretty strong over here. I'd say this is rather rare for a developing country. If I'd have to guess I'd say this is a major reason why many MNC's (Multi National Company) aren't allowed to operate here. It's hard to find a big store selling everything concerning furniture or electronics. There are tons of small shops and that's it. However that's how you successfully preserve a large part of your culture. China, unfortunately, goes the wrong way in that sense and copies lots of Western stuff and makes it just a little bigger and noisier. In India you still see original "homemade and invented" things like Bollywood.

Rikscha drivers... basically I came to the conclusion that it's almost impossible for non-Indians to get a correct price. As long as you look and speak foreignish you simply have to pay more (at least in 50% of cases). Perhaps because I looked like a run-down bump last year or for whatever reason but drivers never took me to their shops. These rikscha's are more or less called company cars and look for innocent prey, so they can get commision from the shop-owners. So far it happened only once, since I'm now asking directly if they want to take me to a shop when they start with a ridiciously low price (when bargaining with Westerners). Once I was offered 10 ruppee (correct price for the distance) and I replied "But I'm not going to any shop". He said "nooo, no shop". I answered "Hey, no shop alright!" and he "Only one" and me again "F**k it!". I took the other rikscha where I was offered 20 ruppee and you know what? After 200m he took the wrong way and I "Hey, where are you going, it's this way". He replied "gas" which I didn't get in the traffic "WHAT???". He again "gas station" and me "What the f**k!". I gave him 10 ruppee (which I shouldn't have) and simply walked the distance. I promise I'll get better with these lalalala. However, in order to have real success with bargaining you gotta shout at them and pretent to be angry. Since I don't feel pressured enough with my budget I'm always gonna be ripped off. Once I'm gonna earn my money in a developing country, however, I'll turn it around and GET ANGRY!!!

By the way I paid hundred ruppee for some kind of march to raise awareness for an orphanage. Two girls who claimed doing an MBA stopped me on the street. They seemed to be really excited about what they did and spread lots of happiness and enthusiasm, which made me buy the ticket and convinced me of not being fooled this time. Couple of minutes later I some more guys doing the same thing and felt reassured. Still... you never know :)

So, back to the manual!

Ahoi,

Don Felipe