As I wrote earlier, I felt that in Africa there were various factors that worked to stifle an entrepreneurial spirit. In India, the overriding feeling I have is of people trying to better their station in life by being adventurous with their business, or at the very least, trying very hard to earn the money that is in short supply to most in Indian society.
Firstly, people selling things to tourists are EVERYWHERE. They are industrious and will approach you when you get out of your car no matter where you park. At one second they are in a market buying goods for themselves, and then they see you...the tourist...and just like a lion stalking prey, they slink over to your side. You meet the gaze of shifty eyes (I am not actually joking about the shifty eyes...without a permit to sell they are trying to be careful) and right before you think that you are going to get mugged, they reach into their pocket a quickly pull out a Kingston flash 32 GB memory card for "a very good price." DUM DUM DUUUM!
If memory cards aren't your thing, then with your purchase of four Michelin tires you can get a cell phone for free. I replaced my watch that I traded to a Massai warrior with a $2 name brand Adidas watch. I was very tempted to enter the clothing store that enticed me to shop there with a real life clown that was handing out fliers to the crowd in the market that had fully taken over the road with its enormity. But I didn't even have to leave the comfort of our tour van to purchase Indian goods, for my local cell phone SIM card carrier kept calling me with what our tour guides laughed and called a "callertune." When I picked up these telemarketing calls, there was no person, just some Indian music that I learned I could buy for my ringtone. When I used the ATM, I could recharge that very same cell phone, truly entrepreneurial!
But, money is precious and apparently I tip well, because at one hotel, the two porters who brought our bags to our room camped outside of our room starting at 7:30 in the morning waiting all the way until 9:30 when we checked out to offer to carry our bags back to the car. They really earned their $2!
The most industrious thing I saw though was definitely the elephant picture racket. While riding an elephant to the top of a fort in Jaipur, some kids were taking pictures of us. One our later, as we exited the fort, there was a gentlemen holding our pictures (he found us) and trying to sell them for $6. He settled for $1 for one of the pictures. Then, four hours later, in the street outside one of the other tourist attraction on the street, another man came up to us with one of our rejected pictures (he seemed only to have our picture) after having found us in a crowd to ask us to buy it for 50 cents! He followed us for about 10 minutes until our car picked up enough speed that he could no longer walk beside it. For all of his tenacity, we might just have bought it had he or our guide had change to pay for it.
These are great!
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