Supplication

The call word is supplication.

It is the answer to incompetence in India.

And it is probably the only defence the average Indian has to cover up for his total incompetence.

Back at the Hotel

So here at the hotel (see Part 1 for the details) I demanded justice.

I had paid in advance for a room. I had demanded my advance. ( 2500 rupees).

The manager , long used to the suffering Indian who accepted his lot to be denied what was rightfully his, had finally met his match. Here was a nightmare that refused to go away. A nightmare that refused to be brow beaten and subdued at any cost. The ground I stood on was firm, it was right and it was just. I demanded justice and fairplay.

The manager prostrated at my feet. The supplication was beginning. He wanted to evoke the little pity in me to get into his act. I told him all this waiting for my room had made me hot and bothered. He signalled a boy to follow me with a tray of water. It was not what I really wanted. I wanted the room I had paid in advance for. ( This boy followed me with the tray wherever I went ….. it was comical …… I could have burst into laughter but I maintained a serious stance )

I demanded to see someone higher up. A man , claiming to be the GM, was summoned. I was invited into the office. The GM, fast running out of arguments, made a big show of touching my feet. The act was complete.

I gave up.

This is the typical Indian act. Supplication. The reason I gave up had nothing to do with reasoning. They had not given one positive reason why my reservation had not been honored. I gave up simply because I saw this supplication as demeaning for humans. They degraded themselves and in the process I felt like the cause of their degradation.