Poo on the shoe...

sfrausher

Hi guys,

This is my first post. I've been following this site faithfully since a month before I left for India, which was now 2 months ago. Since then, I've made it through Mumbai, Ajanta and Ellora, and pretty much all of Rajasthan to Delhi.
I've been having a great time, and love interacting with the locals. Their English is great compared to other places I've travelled, and they're so warm and helpful. Yesterday I had the one really negative experience of my month-long trip so far.
I decided to go by foot to the National Museum from my Paharganj address, via the Connaught Circus. While going, I was approached by several touts, but managed to shrug them all away as usual. At the end of the day though, around 5:00PM, I was getting a little tired of walking around & decided to backtrack the way I came.
I was going up Kasturba Gandhi Marg to the Connaught Circus, and overheard the usual young boys trying to direct me to the "shopping emporiums" - I kept telling them I was busy. I then descended into one of the subways to get to the inner areas of the Connaught Circle, and on the other side was an older man, maybe 40, with a black moustache. He began following me up the stairs and immediately started screaming "There's shit on your shoe, someone's put shit on your shoe."
I had read the warning about this in the lonely planet, but didn't really think to make anything of it. Yet sure enough when I looked down at my right foot, the front part of my sandal was covered with a large glob of what looked like, um, poured cow's diarrhea.
I yelled at the man vociferously in my native English, and quickly found the nearest shop, where they gve me an old newspaper and a pitcher of water to clean up. In terms of damage done, I guess it wasn't more than 100Rs of my time and aggravation, but it really freaked me out for several hours to come.
A little background: I'm male, 28, travelling alone (as I've often done before). I don't look too tough, but none too weak either- at 6'2" I outstand most everyone in this country. I was wearing a white short-sleeve shirt, white trousers, and my sandals. The poo, thankfully, was scooped in such a way that none came in any contact with my flesh or my trouser cuff (though there was certainly plenty of it)!

Anyway, just thought I'd let the community know that this is still going on... Any thoughts, commiserations etc. are most welcome.

--Scott

dcamrass1

The "Poo" con job in Connaught Circle has been on the go must be for 15 - 20 years and wiil go on as long as we Non Indians are around. Chalk it up to part of the "India Expirience"
Happy Travelling

Haylo

Well knowing that someone did that on purpose is a pretty negative thing to happen. A suitable and fitting punishment would start by forcing a funnel into their mouth.

Hope it doesn't happen to me, I have really sensitive feet, which are prone to kicking out uncontrollably if disturbed. Shame, eh?

PeakXV

That's not a scam but actually the Giant India Hoepoopoo bird that has just randomly dropped it's load on your shoe-booty. There are large colonies of this bird species around CP & although it is rumoured/believed that the 'shoeshine boys' actually control their flight patterns & subsesquent relievings - no proof has ever been found. Honest!

<from a 3-time loser of that event>

__________________
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

skk

Yeah its not very nice is it ? I had bird-shit splattered on my suit jacket back on the Tube in London followed by an incessant offer from a middle-aged woman and two younger kids trying to "help" me take my jacket off..

A loud "BUGGER OFF" worked.

The trials and tribulations of metro life.

-skk

Hmmm, perhaps for innocents out there I should be clearer. This is a scam - first THEY splatter you with the bird-shit, THEN while "helping" you take your jacket off, they rifle through the pockets and if they get close enough also through your trouser pockets - But, everybody knew this, right ? RIGHT ?

Haylo

On the tube? Never heard of that one.

Are you sure it was bird shit? I mean, did they smuggle a pigeon into the carriage or something?

bruce3404

>>>>>I was going up Kasturba Gandhi Marg to the Connaught Circus, and overheard the usual young boys trying to direct me to the "shopping emporiums" - I kept telling them I was busy.<<<<<<

Basic mistake here....don't ever engage them in any way, unless to yell BUGGER OFF (and then only when ignoring them doesn't work and they're still following you several blocks later). To engage politely is to give them hope; all rules of politeness that we might adhere to at home become fuel for their continued aggression.

karuna

Bird shit in the Tube? I've never come across that one either. Like Haylo, I'm intrigued by how this works. How do they explain it? A pigeon flew down the tunnel and strafed you?

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Coexist.

[Indian Mona Lisa by Dinesh; can't find original uploader to credit in full.]

skk

Oops, I should have been clearer. I mean in the corridors, that you walk along after you've gone down the escalators and go towards the platforms - on the big stations with multiple lines, you take long walks underground!

I guess they collect it, make a paste of it and then they can splatter it ! Pretty nasty job, come to think of it, no ?

As regards explanations, she wasn't speaking in English to me - nor French, German, Hindi, Marathi or Italian, Spanish either - I would have understood some of the words in those - so no explanations were understood - she just pointed, held her nose, and MOST IMPORTANT of all, was tugging at the jacket to "help" me take it off; and simultaneously I was aware of the "aroma"..

Yeah I'm sure it was bird-shit;I cleaned out chicken coops, in an in-between poultry farming technique, between battery and free range, when I was a kid. At University, I tolerated a bloody pigeon around me for several months that had a broken wing that my gf decided to rescue.

I know bird-shit !

-skk

Haylo

So what makes you think this was a scam? It's so easy to pickpocket someone, getting you to take your jacket off seems an unlikely technique.

Sounds more likely that she was exasperated at her lack of English (loads of Eastern Europeans in London by the way) and was trying to pull your jacket off so she could show you what had happened. London is infested with pigeons which the tourists STILL persist in feeding ( ) and people getting shat on in London is a pretty common occurence.

capt_mahajan

for a moment, I forgot that we were talking about birds

Dingostrategy

Good thing we all pay those taxes for the Police to stop this stuff. 15 years to shut down something common - come on boys, get with it.

Haylo

Well I hear that there are some pretty strange people in London!

capt_mahajan

Aside, anybody know about the bird who did not fly south for the winter? The story with three morals to it?


<will post a link if I find it>

ExpatUK

I sped read the long original post so maybe I'm missing something, but I'm completely confused about this supposed con.

Why did someone put 'poo' on your shoe? It appears the person who put it on was not the same as the one who cleaned it off. It seems whoever put it on did not even offer to clean it off (for payment)

So what was the purpose?