Elephant Baksheesh
In a country with as much povery as India (yes, the poverty is as devastating as you've heard), the people have developed a keen sense of value. That is, compensation can be requested for even the smallest act that can be perceived as a service. Of course, there are plenty of helpful strangers who don't expect anything in return for helping a tourist find a bookstore or good restaurant, and who are eager to engage in long conversations about food, sport, religion, politics, culture, or anything else, but there is also a sizeable population that earns a living by providing assistance.
For example, when I posed next to a guard in Jaipur's City Palace for a photo and he then rubbed his fingers together in the international sign for $$$, I offered him 10 rupees (30 Aussie cents) for his service, which he appreciated. It's also common to offer baksheesh for someone "bending the rules" to gain us access to "restricted" sites or enjoy an upper class waiting area at a railway station when we only have a second class ticket.
Another form of baksheesh is offering small amounts of money to the homeless and handicapped. The tricky thing about that, however, is that earning baksheesh has also quite unfortunately become an industry. It is impossible to know if the legless man pulling himself around the streets by his arms asking for money when rickshaws are stopped at a red light is doing the only thing he can to get by (there is no welfare system in India), or if he has been mutilated by a boss (similar to a pimp) whose people work the corner or the street and who then collects all of their earnings at the end of the day. Children are also used in this way. A child who has left poor home conditions out in the country can be taken in by one of these bosses and then sent into the intersections with small naked babies to beg for money. It's heartbreaking, but the advice we've received is that to offer any money to these people, who actually really do need it, won't actually help them. In fact, it could even make the greater problem worse by encouraging the industry. So, we've decided that the best way to go is to make a donation once we get home to a charitable organisation that actually serves to do some good here.
On a lighter note (and there is plenty of beauty, kindness, and amusement in India to make the poverty more bearable, although not lessened in any way), we were on our way back to our hotel last night after taking in a gorgeous sunset on a mountain peak with 360 degree views of Udaipur, when we passed an elephant in the street. I quickly asked our rickshaw driver, Mustafa, to stop so we could take a photo. Dane jumped out with the camera, and the elephant owner obliged by walking the elephant over for a close-up. Dane got the shot, at which point the elephant reached out its trunk and rubbed its little trunk tip nubbins together. Knowing exactly what he meant, Dane pulled out a 10 rupee note, which the elephant gratefully grabbed hold of and then passed up to his owner. And there you have it: Elephant Baksheesh! :)
AM
For example, when I posed next to a guard in Jaipur's City Palace for a photo and he then rubbed his fingers together in the international sign for $$$, I offered him 10 rupees (30 Aussie cents) for his service, which he appreciated. It's also common to offer baksheesh for someone "bending the rules" to gain us access to "restricted" sites or enjoy an upper class waiting area at a railway station when we only have a second class ticket.
Another form of baksheesh is offering small amounts of money to the homeless and handicapped. The tricky thing about that, however, is that earning baksheesh has also quite unfortunately become an industry. It is impossible to know if the legless man pulling himself around the streets by his arms asking for money when rickshaws are stopped at a red light is doing the only thing he can to get by (there is no welfare system in India), or if he has been mutilated by a boss (similar to a pimp) whose people work the corner or the street and who then collects all of their earnings at the end of the day. Children are also used in this way. A child who has left poor home conditions out in the country can be taken in by one of these bosses and then sent into the intersections with small naked babies to beg for money. It's heartbreaking, but the advice we've received is that to offer any money to these people, who actually really do need it, won't actually help them. In fact, it could even make the greater problem worse by encouraging the industry. So, we've decided that the best way to go is to make a donation once we get home to a charitable organisation that actually serves to do some good here.
On a lighter note (and there is plenty of beauty, kindness, and amusement in India to make the poverty more bearable, although not lessened in any way), we were on our way back to our hotel last night after taking in a gorgeous sunset on a mountain peak with 360 degree views of Udaipur, when we passed an elephant in the street. I quickly asked our rickshaw driver, Mustafa, to stop so we could take a photo. Dane jumped out with the camera, and the elephant owner obliged by walking the elephant over for a close-up. Dane got the shot, at which point the elephant reached out its trunk and rubbed its little trunk tip nubbins together. Knowing exactly what he meant, Dane pulled out a 10 rupee note, which the elephant gratefully grabbed hold of and then passed up to his owner. And there you have it: Elephant Baksheesh! :)
AM
posted by Leden at
3:03 pm
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