30 March 08 (About the 29th: To Fatehpur Sikri and back)

I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my room, but not deeply, as one would have expected. I missed her and didn't understand why I'd had to leave. If she hadn't wanted to have sex anymore I could have done that, and I could have been discreet while she left to go for her walk with the Leftie-Rightie twins. The receptionist's wake-up call roused me finally, I didn't feel rested and I was filled with doubt. On the one hand, I was half-afraid that it had been just a one-night stand for S, though I couldn't help wishing that even if it were just that we could make it a week-long one-night stand. I thought also that perhaps in the light of day, walking with her fellow Americans and recalling her life in the US and that after all she was just holidaying here, she would be filled with some kind of remorse about her marriage, which hadn't yet ended and about which she seemed to be conflicted - after all, she had planned this trip for her husband and her to reconnect. On the other hand, I was afraid that she was just not that into me, after all, she is older, and more experienced - which in this case was very easy for her to be. I oscillated between this vision of her rejecting me unrequitedly, "Oh Naresh, I can't do this anymore, it is tearing me apart!" and her brushing me off, "Oh come on Naresh, all we did was spend a night together - I don't know what you expected. It was wonderful but it is time for us to move on.".

Another part of me was thinking that even in the case of her continued interest in me, it would be easier if she did ignore me, that otherwise I would pass the whole day just waiting to return from FS, thinking about nothing else but being alone with her again, and that it would be unbearable to suffer her nearness and presence all day long in broad daylight in India with hordes of people and tourists, and taboos! Recall that walking around Jaipur with her had already made me uncomfortable, when I was not even being interested in her, and if it is true that Jaipur is not Pune, it is more so that Fatehpur Sikri, regardless of the foreign tourists, is not Jaipur!

And, Vinod, this was NOT something I had planned to happen and in me defense, let me submit my third blog and the casual disinterest it evidences.

When I went down to meet everyone for morning chai before taking the rented Matador to Fatehpur Sikri, I found that S had saved a seat for me at her table! So it was to be intolerable waiting all day long! The uncertainty had been resolved, but was the cat alive, or dead?

BTW Vinod, most of the group is very happy with all the bird watching yesterday in Keoladeo, thoroughly pleased with the leisurely rickshaw rides through the park and the respite this trip has provided from the hangama of Jaipur. Today's visit to Fatehpur Sikri was also a big hit. The guide that Salim had pre-arranged for us (is he a regular with you?) was bursting with stories about the palaces, their inhabitants and the intrigues that would take place between all these historical people, various romantic tales and tales of cleverness and valour. A veritable walking Amar Chitra Katha. I think some of the stuff he was just making up on the fly – FS was occupied as Akbar's capital for a very short time wasn't it? Plus it was after his great campaigns were over, right? Anyway, the guide must have memorized his architectural spiel very accurately, because he would switch into a different mode, his eyes would glaze over, he would look off and up and he would rattle off the Hindu influence and the Mughal influence and the alignment of the buildings and their purpose and names rather tonelessly, in contrast to the animated tone he had when he was relating the stories.

This guide's manner of relating the architectural details was reminiscent of that waiter "Sex!" at Shiv Sagar that we would tease so much: he would rattle off the dinner menu and then we would ask him, "What was that after the Bhendi fry?" or "Achha, will we get dal with the thaali?" and his unique response would be to rattle off the whole menu again. I guess it was funny at the time, or we were drunk. You know it just occoured to me, we used to end up tipping him rather heavily at the end of the meals, was it just an act for him, was he pulling one on us?

Anyway, back to our day at Fatehpur Sikri. On our way there, the bus driver stopped at a little dhaba-type place just before entering the village of FS, for nashta and chai, again. Across the highway was the village school, with a large luxury bus -which had the name of a big Agra hotel all along it- parked in front and a whole lot of firangs, to the back and off to one side, with pickaxes and crowbars and other digging tools! I was totally intrigued, so I walked over with Brian to see what was going on. There was a small, dusty, stony, uneven field between the back of the school and a low stone wall - just your typical village or town school playground, where all the tourons were gathered, along with a couple of self-important and bossy seeming Indian seths. The firangs were measuring and laying out string and trying to hammer wooden pegs into the ground. They were all wearing normal clothes (for tourons) so they weren't obviously some religious sect or anything.

Three people got off the bus (the driver, the conductor or chela and the Agra hotel's tour guide), leaned back on the bus and watched the firangs at their business, so I went over to chat. Turns out this is some “voluntourism” (the Agra guide's term, not mine!) daytrip, where all these 5-star hotel tourists get to do some community service by building something or the other. Apparently it is quite a regular and popular feature now! Their project for the day was to build a level playing field for volleyball or hockey, it was never clear to me which, for the school kids. I asked the guide whether the tourons were paid the usual labourer's wages, and he replied that no, in fact they pay the hotel Rs.2,000 each for the privilege – luxury bus from Agra, hot lunch prepared for them on the spot, thankful villagers etc. This is all so they can “connect” with the communities, see how they live and have a “deeper experience” of India. While we were chatting, one of the women in the group called out to the guide with a big smile, “Don't just stand there, come and help us dig.”. 
You can imagine how well that went over with the Agra guide. He sauntered off and Brian and I headed back to our group. Brian mentioned that he had read something about this kind of  "voluntourism" in travel mags in the US and had been curious to find out who went on these trips. My conversation with the Agra guide had been in Hindi, so I told Brian that the impression I had from what the Agra guide told me (rather freely, I think he must have taken a look at our Matador and decided that we weren't competition) was that this was just one day from the whole tour package, no one came here exclusively to do this. It was an option offered by the tour company and some of their customers signed up for it in advance, but since it was run by the hotel, other guests signed up for it after arriving at the hotel. The hotel had some kind of partnership or connection with a NGO which would suggest places and activities, but he, the Agra guide, had never actually seen any representative of the NGO at the sites he'd been to. I asked Brian whether that satisfied his curiosity about the make-up of the group, but he wasn't sure. 


Nice gimmick! You should try it with your company. "Spend a night in an authentically reconstructed jhopadpatti, hookworm infestation $40 extra, disinfection free!" Should I put together a business plan?

In the middle of touring FS, after lunch, I decided to take a break from the guide's prattle and skip the rest of  the tour. I asked S if she wanted to come with me to find the "Diwan-e-harem" and explained my little joke to her. She readily came with me and we went to take a look at the schoolyard project. It was a short walk down from the palaces and through the village to the school, but the sun beat down, it was dry and hot and still and bright and silent in the heat, or rather, the only thing you could hear was the heat beating down in waves, pushing away all other sound, though occasionally you would hear a far off tractor or a village dog bark. I was glad our group had taken your suggestions for protective clothing and had adopted them myself.  It never gets like this in Pune.  Anyway, the Agra tourons seemed to have made great progress – the field had been leveled with stones and they were getting ready to fill it with dirt or sand, a big mound of which had been deposited nearby. None of the Indians with the group were anywhere to be seen, they were probably in the cool of some chai-house, or even better, napping in the A/C bus! I said something caustic to S about the kids playing volleyball on rocks, but she said, “Look, they've done some good, they've made something, I don't see any Indians doing this.”. That silenced me, and I said that she was right, the tourists would feel some connection and they will leave with a deeper sense of India than just magnificent and decrepit looted ruins and colorful handicrafts. That is when I noticed that the stone wall behind the school had disappeared! Guess where the tourons had obtained the stones for leveling the field! None of the Indians with the Agra group were around however, so I didn't pursue the matter.

Later, when we were leaving FS for the bus-drive back to B'pur, the driver stopped again at that same “Restoruant”, for tea before the 45 min drive back! Must have taken a theka in it. At the school now, all the firangs and the luxury bus had left, but a small crowd of villagers had gathered, they seemed angry and there was some amount of yelling going on. I walked across, alone this time, to see what was happening. The stone wall, it turned out, was the property of the farmer of the fields behind the school and demarcated the boundary. The voluntourons had used it as a source of stones to fill in the playground, and now someone was going to have to rebuild the wall. Maybe next week's tour group at the Agra hotel, or a tour group from a rival hotel would do it? Recalling your injunction, I decided to not mention it to anyone in our group.
Next time you take a tour group to FS, take a look at that wall/ground and please let me know how it turned out.