After my splendid day yesterday, I arrived at the hotel and sat in a chair on the terrace/driveway, where a German man called Peter was already sitting. I know he is called Peter because he told me. I said, by way of opening a conversation (as I have not been to finishing school), “Slum feet,” and pointed at my filthy toes.
“Oh. Yes,” he said, in a German accent. ” Sandals are no good. Indians are not walkers. You need proper walking shoes.”
I was so dazed, I couldn't be bothered to reply. After drinking my Mirinda, I asked the-friendly-and-hospitable-Raj whether his boys - the fourteen year olds he employs as hotel helps - go to school. He was defensive. “They are totally uneducated,” he said. “There are millions of kids like them. I give them a job. You have no idea how much I have to teach them. They leave the taps running. I tell them to switch off the light and they don't know what light is.”
Uh huh.
“They are from Bihar,” said Raj. Bihar is the poorest state in India and notorious for lawlessness, backwardness and violence.
“Oh!” said the German in horrified yet sympathetic tones. “Bihar! They are so stupid and uneducated.”
This woke me up. “They are not stupid,” I said in a tone that Dick Francis would describe as “mild.” “Stupidity and no education are not the same thing.”
The German didn't look convinced. I asked him where he lived, thinking that would account for his stupidity (not his lack of education). “Here,” he said.
He wears walking shoes in 32 degree heat and he thinks poor people are stupid in a city where two out of three people live in a slum. He must fit right in.