Baksheesh

Our driver for the Jaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur legs of our trip (about 11 days) is one Daulat Singh. He is a soft-spoken, middle-aged man of limited English, but he has the heart of a mother tigress.  We have received many lectures about strangers to whom we should not speak, places to which we should and should not venture, and food we should and should not eat.  He routinely locks all the doors when we enter a "dangerous"  neighborhood.

   He is also very solicitous (or should I say generous?)  when it comes to bathroom breaks and tea breaks.  In fact, yesterday we hadn't been on the road for an hour before he suggested a tea break.  I said, "No thanks, we're good."  He tried a couple more times so I said, "Do you need tea, Daulat?"  He stretched his right arm above his head and said, "Yes, sometimes get very tired driving. Need tea."  Well of course I don't want him falling asleep at the wheel, so I said "Yes, yes, let's have tea." So we did.  But then on the way out, he spoke a couple of words to the proprietor who ducked under the counter and came back up with an eggbeater which he presented to Daulat.

   "Holiday gift!" he beamed. (We are still celebrating Dewali, I guess.)  And off we went.

   A couple of hours later he asked if we wanted to stop at a very nice textile factory on the way to Ajmer.  We demurred.  He pointed out, in very unpushy tones, that factory prices are very good.  We demurred again.  So what could he do?  He fessed up. He said that he receives a gift when he delivers a potential customer to the factory (or teahouse or restaurant or ....).  He said, "If you no like, no buy. Just look 10 minutes and then go."  So that's what we did. And when we came back to the car he showed us his new 32 piece dinnerware set.  

   He was absolutely "made up" (happy)! He jumped back in the car and said, "Now Ajmer. No stops."  And then we were made up too.

MS1