tata, india's car company, is coming out with a model which will cost only one lach (100,000 rupees, or about $2500). traffic will be absolutely impossible as people replace their scooters and motorbikes.
i am very polite the first time someone asks me if i want a rickshaw or whatever. i am direct the second time. if they persist and pester me, i am as rude as possible. i'm a little nicer to kids, i just ignore them.
if i was shopping, this would be a wonderful place to do it. this is where many of the handicrafts sold in india are made. i saw amazing art, and the prices were so good, i wouldn't even have bargained. for example, an intricate, 8x10 patchwork bedspread made from scraps of dress fabric in the design of an elephant: $125. easily an $800 piece in the states.
i'm not shopping, however.
i apologized to my driver, who would have received a commission from anything i bought. i said "i know i'm strange". he said i was like a coconut, strange on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside.
yesterday i took my driver for a mocha. he had never even been inside the coffe shop, much less had a mocha, which costs 20 times the cup of chai he drinks. today, i took my driver to lunch at his favorite restaurant. awesome food!
jodhpur tomorrow. we'll see how the blue city compares to the pink one.