Having a Servant - India continued

Val here:

Arieh and I paid the Kumar brothers tourist agents of Delhi to use their car and pay a driver to take us on a 15-day tour of Rajasthan in western India. For those planning a visit - we paid about $30 (US) a day for car and driver. Sharjee, as he told us to call him, became our keeper and protector as well as our driver. Along with driving came warnings, "Do not take the flower from anyone near the ghats of Pushkar!" "Don't talk to anyone on your way - they're out to cheat you!"

Another service Sharjee provided was hotel searchings "I'm knowing where older people like you wish to stay - you don't want to be staying with young people - all they do is smoke marajuana and make noise." He assured us that the hotels he recommended were excellent, " be looking at the decoration - everyone likes that - there is no place like this hotel anywhere in the city. You'll be very comfortable here". And he was usually right.

But Sharjee had his own agenda. "Please madam (that's me!) just give me 20 minutes of your time. I know this shop is far too expensive Madam but you only have to stay for 20 minutes." I obliged him once - on entry no less than 6 salesmen descended the elegant winding staircase to regale me with the superiority of their inlaid marble table tops, $100 table cloths, carpets, wooden carved furniture, etc. I barely got out of there except that it was 8:00 pm and the salesmen, just a little more than making a sale, wanted to go home. During this whole episode, Arieh peacefully perched on a chair and suggested they "show Madame" while he read his book.

Sharjee did manage to get us lower rates at certain hotels and introduced us the the "truck shop" version of stops in India where the masala chai is the best in the world; though the food is not always as appetizing. The meals, often rice and dahl or palak paneer, are accompanied by as many fresh chapattis as you can eat. One needn't eat until the next day: the offerings are filling and plentiful. And there were always interesting people who wanted to "talk" with you or have their picture taken.

The best hotel that Sharjee introduced us to was the one near Pushkar. The gorgeous setting entranced us even more than the mystic ghats of the totally vegan, spiritual town of Pushkar. Our hotel room overlooked rosebushes - rows and rows of them. Each evening, two women in colourful sarees collected the rose petals to sell to people going to temple. The ladies never stopped talking as they plucked, except to offer me a rose and stem in welcome. In the back of our hotel room was a balcony overlooking a row of mango and mangrove trees - a great host for local birds - and then a fence on the other side of which was a chrysanthemum farm. Could one want a better setting! He also selected the hotel in Ranakpur for us - which was lovely with its pool and garden setting despite a rather difficult and inconsistent manager.

Sharjee's worst selection was Newton Manor in Jodpur. The Manor is owned by a proudly Christian host who insists there is no other place like it in all of India! He is certainly right about that! Memorabilia at its best consists of antique lamps, grungy antique carpets and a 1947 Vauxhaul parked in the carport. At its worst - a stuffed tiger, several stuffed antelope and buffalo heads - and a poor little stuffed head of a cat-like civet which with raised ears watched us eat dinner and breakfast. Fortunately dinner and breakfast were excellent and better yet, we met two young women travelling together: Australian Celeste and British Natalie. When Celeste lived in England she met Natalie and now that she's returned to live in Australia the two women reunite each year at some remarkable place to explore the area and enjoy each other's cojmpany - this year it is Rajasthan, India. We had great talks during our meals together and hope that some way, someday we'll get to visit again with one or both of these interesting women.

Unable to face another night at the Manor, we moved to a Haveli Hotel (much to Sharjee's chagrin) and kvelled in a huge gorgeous room in a haveli stye hotel with walkways all round - the style the Maharajahs favoured. It is rather like the colonial style house in the south of the United States with the huge veranda, except that rather than facing outside, the varanda is inside, facing a large airy courtyard.

Sharjee was most pleasant unless he got into his "medicine" (whiskey) in the evening and groused about our choices in hotels which he felt were inferior to his choices. To be fair, the management of our hotels were often rude to the drivers (so he told us) or gave them terrible accomodation. It can't be easy to see your "master and madam" move into huge air-conditioned rooms with use of a pool while you stay in a stuffy windowless room with restricted access to the hotel.

It is a quandary - at least for me. Sharjee is determined to do his "duty" to drive and protect us. We are doing are best to be good masters - to pay and direct him. As I see it, it is an awkward relationship - but a common one in India.

Two books that describe the dilemma of the master/servant relationship in India rather well:

Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald and Three Stories by Amit Chaudhuri

The picture below is the menu at one of the MacDonalds in New Delhi. There is chicken but no beef on this menu
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