Tricks of the Trade

Today I was sitting in front of this guys shop painting. We started talking about the state of India today. He said he lived in Jailsalmer for his whole life. I said he probably saw many changes since his childhood. My last trip here was in 2004 and I noticed quite a few changes. More stores, more tourists, more touts. There are times when walking around town is extremely annoying. There's people saying 'Sir, Madam, you like my shop?' 'Want to spend money in my shop?' 'Two for 100, no? Three? Four? Five? Seven for 100?' At times it's best to walk with your head down and aviod eye contact.

The guy I was talking with was telling me how all this tourist money coming in brings in some shady characters. There's an artist down from my hotel who buys prints, then sits in front of his shop, and paints borders on them. Then he says that the work is hand drawn. Clever.

Another worse story is how these guides bring groups of tourists to large shops and scam their money. See in India there are these guides. These guides just sit around, looking for googling tourists and then offer to show them around town. The guides are always all spiffed up in some lame looking half suit, half indian dress outfit. You can spot a guide a mile away. Wherever the guide takes a tourist, if the tourist buys something, the guide gets a commission. Usually around 30%. It's such a scam.

My friend Raja works in this shop and if someone walks in and wants a ring he'll say one price, if the tourist has a guide, he has to say a higher price to pay for the guides commission. Some guides have this particular scam where they will call a store ahead of time and say they are bringing in a big group of tourists. Then the store owner will go get a group of kids and put them out back and give them some pencils and paper. When the group arrives, the tourists see this impromptu 'school' and think that the store is doing good for the community. The owner may say that 1/2 the profits go to helping these kids learn. The tourists feeling nice buy many things from the shop and often give big donations. The guides get 30%.

If you're planning on going to India. Buyer beware.