Invasion of personal space and personal protection.

shashank.aggarwal

Thats exactly the way to do it !! just ignore and keep doing whatever you are doing or Move away...

Don't react an anyway..as Nick pointed somewhere that getting ANY kind of reaction is the first step of successful sale..Or simply speaking if you give any reaction they come to know that they are making an impact on you...it might be irritation, sympathy, hatred or anything...and that is their cue..

They simply assume that to get rid of them you will take their service OR pay them...

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Travelogue - Around India
Random Reviews

Peacefulplanet

Thanks for the info, in Bali, which is full of package tourists it worked in extreme cases, but I have not been to India, which will be very different I reckon. Only a few weeks until I get there

@Palmlandtours.net: No, not aggressive, I was giving the real annoying guys just the impression I'm totally nuts (would you try selling something to a person that sounds like a chicken?) and to make money off me is impossible.

wonderwomanusa

In the 70s, before India had TV, I believe that there were lots of Indians, especially in small towns and villages, that had never seen Westerners before, or hadn't seen any since 1947. I was stared at a lot, and sometimes hassled.

I did find that folding my hands in a "namaste" made people stop staring; they would then greet me and move on with their lives.

It's not necessary to be offensive, or to take offense.

GauhatiBoy

Wonderwoman, I lived in India in the 70's too. With my blond hair and blue eyes I really stood out. I was used to people staring, but I wish I had known your "namaste" move. With personal contact they would have seen me more as a real person rather than someone from Mars But I didn't consider the staring rude, after all I was a Martian to them. My dad has black hair and a darker complexion than I, and he learned Assamese very well, so people thought he was Kashmiri or something.

wonderwomanusa

I think we WERE Martians to some people; they stared as if they were looking in a hardware store window, wondering what those odd things might be. Saying "namaste" humanized me; the social imperative said they had to respond, and that kind of brought them out of their trance.

I'm not sure what made me try that, but since it worked, I used it over and over again, and even now, sometimes, it will make the touts go away... a valuable device.

kalbarri

one tout hassled me and followed me for ages near the clothing stalls. i kept telling him no but he persisted and pushed some beads that he was trying to sell me, into my hands. i lost my temper and yelled at him and threw them to the ground and there was a vibe of "shock, horror" and as he yelled at me, i walked away, feeling a bit guilty and concerned. i must add that this was after about an hour of not being able to buy what i wanted because at each stall i went to, i was hassled and i would move on. i seriously wanted a new blouse and ended up not getting one at the cochin market.
the next day i saw the same guy and he smiled and greeted me but didn't try to sell me anything!
i was really pleased that he didn,t hold a grudge,so, of course, i smiled and greeted him back.

GauhatiBoy

Oh boy, you must seem an easy target. Maybe wear sunglasses and speak in a robot voice.

kalbarri

i thought only 2 temper losses in 2 months was pretty good!

blackbird

I don't think anyone should feel guilty about getting angry with touts and traders who won't leave you alone.

I think you did the right thing throwing the beads on the floor, kalbarri, and he probably even respected you for it.

In a lot of tourist places I don't buy anything from traders, because it's enough hassle not buying things, I don't want to find out what the pressure is like if I actually show any interest.

kalbarri

sometimes i just think, the poor guy might have had a really lean day to be THAT persistent. the other thing is annoyance with oneself for blowing ones cool.

atala

To add my two cents worth here: I deal with beggars by giving them something, but something that they do not awfully crave, and that is: two or three slices of bread that I carry with me for this purpose, or Marie Biscuits or so. Those who are really hungry, and some of them are, often children, then are really happy and start to smile. The act of giving is something we can do to share in campassion, and that gives us something back too.

After all I am a rich European compared to them all. I know that they are in for real business, and partly making a show of suffering, mimicking displeasure and all, but that is part of their job. In my country I cannot give anything to anyone, no beggars here in Switzerland. India has a wealth of them, and they make India wealthy, because they keep the energy of giving and receiving flowing, and that alone is worth a lot. I feel fortunate that I can participate in this exchange a little bit, and distribute some of my earnings, even if in small, but direct human ways.

With people who want to sell me something on the road and come asking me to take, holding an item into my path, I just take, say "thank you", and walk away. All the others see that, see the joke of it, smile and leave me alone. The guy from whom I took will try desperately to get his thing back.

White Flower

Sellers, touts, beggars, whatever, never worried me at all.

The ones at the Taj are pretty wild though.I would hate to run through them on my own.

Simply don't talk with anyone you don't plan to buy off.The most I bothered with was "Nahim".
In retrospect some of their stuff was good value and I will buy a lot more next time.

I never felt overly harassed at all.

GauhatiBoy

Or you can point to an ear, signal nehi, and use sign language

Jamie11

I have found the most efficent way of dealing with this problem is to ignore them 100%, dont even say no, just totally ignore them and do not acknowledge them at all, they leave very quickly.

I remeber once when I was in Varanassi, there was this american bloke who was agressivly saying no to three young boys who were pestering him for something, each time he said no he was becoming a bit more aggresive. they found it highly amusing and therfore kept on antagonizing him, he was just digging him self a hole.

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such is life....

Jamie11

go outside Stadlehoffen train station in Zurich mate, plenty of beggers there. and they are all drunk.