It would appear that we have come back to Ramnad, only with more people and factories and some nice buildings overgrown with India, but the girls are wearing Indian clothes again. For an ex-capital city, Ahmedabad isn't very modern - or Westernised depending on how you look at it. It's unbelievably crowded - very similar to what I thought Mumbai would be like - it takes hours to cross the road, the traffic is unrelenting.
We had a nasty auto-man who wouldn't take us to the hotel we wanted to go to and took us to another where the proprietor assured us that the one we had wanted was full and very expensive.1 Out came our 'nicked out of the Guide' quotes and he said that of course he couldn't actually know if it was full really, and everyone knows it's cheap as anything.
I hate the way they try it on and even when we're sure of ourselves they go on and on until you begin to doubt our sanity. If you go to another auto, the driver just follows you telling everyone to agree that it's 14km and Rs70 to where you want to go, even if you know it's just round the corner. You can get so angry because they know that if they make you stand in the sun long enough you'll agree to anything.
...
Ahmedabad is a town of Mosques, so tomorrow we're going to don out doily hats and check out the Muslim enclaves. Some of them are 500 years old (the Mosques - not the Muslims).
...
I hate feeling cruel and heartless because I don't give money to everyone who pokes me saying Babu, Babu. You can feel everyone watching as the Rich White Tourist turns out his pockets, saying look, no money! Their contempt for you is unspoken but the air is thick with the disgust. I hope this is just paranoia. None the Indians give any money, especially not the ones in posh satin. They are the ones who treat the poor like animals, not us.
There were some village people on the train who were having an argument. On inquiring about the subject I was told don't worry, they're uneducated. And what's that supposed to mean? Sometimes I think that Indians are terrible people, but it's the way they've been taught. Yesu throws plastic away on the streets, in the countryside, but that doesn't mean that he's a 'bad' person. He's just not been told all the facts.