how to handle touts?

jivan

I 'm looking forward to Luckywoman's reply or anybody else's. This is too interesting topic to me having the last word. It would be nice if somebody else also gives some interesting twist/turn or a newer/fresher perspective without all of getting black & blue (Ahhh! the wonders of internet!)

theginsoakedboy

hey ppl

The touts scene is definitely an issue. No denying that.

But, when you actually think about the reason why it exists, it becomes less irritating. As Jivan quantified earlier, in most of the cases, its just poor (really poor) people trying to make some money out of the tourists. When they see a foreigner, there arises a hope. The reason: they assume that this guy is very rich and would not mind parting with fifty or hundred bucks (a coupla USD).

But, the real problem starts when it kinda becomes an organized activity. When the "official" officials become a part of it.

Again, it is something which can be dealt with without much effort. It just requires you to be confident and stern. Just keep ignoring them. Most of them would walk off. The ones that remain just need to be told once in a very stern voice. It works in almost all of the cases.

These arent issues which should really bother a tourist to the extent that his/her decision to make a trip is affected. It requires a bit of tolerance and alertness.

Look at the worst case scenario. You may be cheated off what, 1000 bucks - 2000 bucks - big deal yaar. If you are smart enough, it would not repeat.

Just read through the posts here - I just did - that should take care of most of your doubts.

Welcome to India !

__________________
The angels can keep their harps... God plays the GUITAR



Kunal

the gin soaked BLOG

Nick-H

Well, there are times that people want to just admire the view; or stop and talk about where to go next; or wait for someone to come from a shop. People should be able to do that, without it being a continual battle.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

jivan

sorry for blowing off Nick, but don't see that happening unless the population comes under control. Till we don't have babies happening every sec. & hence space/food issues for each new mouth.

phantom569

just came back from 3 weeks in delhi, varanasi, jodhpur and agra...

at first i tried to be open minded and have a sense of humor about it, but it just became too annoying anyway, so then i started to act like i didn't speak english and they were as persistent as always. finally, i realized that the absolute best way to get them to leave you alone is just keep on walking like you don't see them, and don't even respond. it may sound rude, but there were times that i had to do this (and i didn't do it ALL the time, mind you)to keep peace of mind and it worked like an absolute charm when i needed a break from all the persistence.

good luck!!!

Nick-H

As an ex-londoner I find it natural and all-too-easy to walk past someone (or even stand next to them!) as if they don't exist.
Unless you are interested in what they are offering, and there may be occasions when you actually are, then don't feel any guilt about it.

Just ignore them. Any attempt to make you do otherwise is just emotional blackmail. If the guy wants to pull his limbs off and lie there in a pool of blood --- that's his problem.

Uncle_Martin

Good advice phantom569, it worked for me, as did pretending to be German and shouting the sort of things storm-troopers say in silly boys comics but don't take post-modernist irony too far ... there is the apocryphal story of someone who used some Welsh phrases they had memorized for this purpose and got accosted by a passer-by desperate to practice their Welsh.

Nick-H

And it is astonishing how some of these guys have a string of languages up their sleeves!

atala

I have posted on a different thread, just a moment ago, about strategies of dealing with sales-people who follow you around persistently. You can either engage their services (with or without buying anything) or turn the situation around and make them the object of your attention, and start seeing the funny side of them. This then becomes a situation of self-experience and self-exploration, of how someone can either manipulate your experience of the present moment, or how you can make use of it to increase self-awareness and keep a level of freedom in the interaction. Plainly said: a way to have fun rather than get annoyed. With this in mind both sides can benefit to some extent.

New Market: What's the story with the "guides"?

Nick-H

...If you have the time and the inclination, and you don't mind having your attention taken from something else, then yes, one can do all kinds of stuff.

Really, really ignoring someone is very difficult, it is a kind of yoga in itself, it is quite a discipline and practising this is of benefit to oneself.

Of course, another kind of discipline is to produce all the signs of anger without having any heat inside. Get that one right, and people will melt away before you. I speak from experience from my younger days, but these days I don't have the discipline and loose my temper first. Loose your temper and you've lost the battle!

atala

Indeed. Discipline is the right word. Being the disciple of a situation rather than the teacher. When we get angry it happens because we feel mistreated, disrespected in our integritiy, and we feel we have to assert our authority over someone else who should please learn to respect us. It never happens that way, though. With showing anger or even annoyance we show that we are out of balance, and I believe most Indians would take advantage of that by showing their superiority over us, since they are the world champions in taking humiliation without showing any emotional outbursts.

I know this last statement is a bit provocative. But everyone of us who has ever expressed anger in public in India may know what I am talking about.

Personally I have undergone different stages of a longer learning experience of how to relate in India, of how to adjust properly. In India you hear a lot the quote: In Rome do as the Romans do. It has its benefits, but also its clear disadvantages of self-denial. In the long run I felt that in order to not lose my integrity I needed to cultivate my own responses rather than behave in ways that are expected from me in the given inter-cultural settings. This is a discipline of its own which listens as much to my own deeper requirements, as to the ones a situation enforces over me.

Those of you who have an understanding of astrology know that India is governed by Saturn. Saturn and Capricorn are typically the teacher. India and Indians even have a publicly discussed compulsion about being the world's guru. Many Indians have a guru-complex, especially in relation to Westerners. In whatever field, Indians tend to think they can teach us something. With such assumption people are less willing to learn, as they think they are the ones who should teach. So we would fare better if we do not push the idea we could teach something to Indians, in a Saturnian way that is. We cannot force anything on them, be it in anger or in cool analysis, unless they are inviting us to teach them. For Indians, however, our mere presence in their country seems to be an invitation to teach.

Indians in general live a rather disciplined life in private(as long as they are not out on the road where the opposite is true), while we (Europeans, and descendents) tend to less discipline at home and more discipline in public. Many more fascets to this Saturnian theme (repression, the threshold, governance, through suffering to wisdom, and so on), but I leave it here.

Nick-H

Perhaps you overcomplicate the situation a little.

I'd go so far as to suggest that maybe the nationalisation could be wrong too. An Indian tout is just the same as non-Indian cold-caller in Europe, or a guy on the doorstep in UK, who will use any means, legal or otherwise, he doesn't care, to get your signature on a double-glazing contract, or a change of phone, or gas, or electricity supplier. Or even making a powerpoint presentation about his company's software consultancy services.

They are all unwanted salesmen, selling you unwanted products and doing their damndest (as they see it, and it works on enough people for them to be making a living) to sell you something whether you want it or not. The guy who plays his guitar in you face whilst his mate sings and holds out the hat is doing the same.

Humiliation? doesn't even come into the question. Anybody who, for a moment, feels rejection or humiliation will not last a day in any of these jobs. Thick skin? Impervious skin!

PeakXV

As you get more experienced you learn to pick out the different personalities & levels of intelligence in the touts & hawkers. There are some that only want a direct 'yes' or 'no' response from you, there are some who will see any 'yes' or 'no' response as an opportunity to follow you for at least 10 blocks like a kitten following it's mom and the rest all fall with varying degrees of persistence .... somewhere in bewteen.

Beware of too much comms with the half-educated street seller with a little bit of english and even less of a sense of humour. These types can be particularly shadowing. They may well imprint on you like a gosling to a mother goose.

On the other hand an intelligent, ambitious sardar with a good sense of humor often only wants to be acknowledged and/or a short friendly chat to any sales proposal .... then they're gone.

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

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

capt_mahajan

No we don't.

But listen carefully, and I will explain to you why

Nick-H

I don't know about 'guru' complex, but I've often encountered the 'uncle' complex --- the man who knows about everything and wants to tell you what he knows about everything.

Like the guy who started to give Mrs N and I a lecture on how to pack for a trip to London. He'd never been on a plane in his life. I say 'started' --- I think even he realised that it was a bit ridiculous and shut up