Madam, you want to buy ...?

Day three in Trivandrum. Nice to settle in. People are getting to know me here. Which is a mixed blessing ...

I am still getting used to the Indian style of commerce. Business pundits over here and elsewhere say that India is poised to become a major world power. If you think the Americans are aggressive in business, you haven't seen nothing until you've tried (or tried NOT) to do business here.

Every day now, I walk down the street. And shopkeepers say "you will come in Madam?" and I say "not now" and they say "you promise .." and I say "I'm here for another couple of days. Not now". They don't forget what you say to them. You indicate an interest in a green shawl and they have a stack of green shawls to show you next time you come by. It's relentless.

I have figured out what I need to do. I can only handle a couple of hours being out and about and then the constant trying to sell me stuff really stretches my capacity to be compassionate and understanding. So I give myself permission to go back to the hotel and leave it all .. and then an hour later I'm primed and ready to get going again.

I wish I could make some of these people understand that I'm more likely to buy if they just leave me alone. But they don't do things that way so there's no point wishing for it.

Hope I'm not sounding bitchy. I don't mean to ... still having fun, it's still beautiful. I do miss the dispassionate distance of North American society sometimes. But there's another side to that too.

Off to the Trivandrum zoo today. Vinod and his wife Lily are going to show me the sites of the town. It's Diwali right now. Which I have been told is mostly a northern festival but the southerners have been adopting it too. Lots of firecrackers.

More later
V