January 20, 2005



In a place where people are so attentive to details and dress as displays of wealth, we were watched with great interest. We looked inescapably American. We were an unusual sight in a country without much foreign tourism. Our guide Sujeet said that India generally gets two million foreign tourists per year, and that last year had seen an increase to 3.2 million. Americans are clearly associated with wealth in India, so the most enterprising locals quickly attached themselves to us. Despite looking rich,

we were not dressed well, which made us even more of a curiosity.

When one of the hotel clerks, a young woman named Rajni, helped me put on my new silk saree, she looked at my dirty tennis shoes and asked quietly if I was going to wear the shoes and the saree together. She did a good job restraining her horror. Rajni was also curious about the price of the silk. It had been about Rs. 3000, which I was embarrassed to tell Rajni. Gauging the difference in our economies was difficult, but an article in the Hindustan Times had listed the monthly family incomes of some middle class high school students as approximately Rs. 40,000, a little less than $1000. Rajni’s salary was probably not that high. She inhaled sharply on hearing the price. Instead of telling me, as she had said before, that I paid too much, she simply said, “Well… it’s very nice.”

Later, in the lobby, both she and her co-worker were ready to leave work and accompany me to help buy some nicer shoes. Rajni and another co-worker, Farouk, were also very surprised that I had no bangles to wear with the saree. Both of them were very generous; she gave me the bracelet she was wearing, and Farouk left work for half