Varanasi--Feb. 11

We are ever delayed; welcome to India, nobody is in a hurry to get anywhere or do anything. I was up at 6:30 this morning yet with the extra time I took longer; still somehow I managed to be early although I thought I was late. I had been under the impression that the morning discussions began at 7, turns out it is 7:45, knowing the actual time I can manage my morning accordingly and get out in the sun to start the day. The morning group today discussed prayer, heaven and hell from a Baha’i inspired perspective-ish. From what I have read which is only 3 books to this point they are slightly off the message—rarely in an important way. The morning chats with the teachers are a nice way to wake up and get to better know those people you work with.
From that chat it was on to an outdoor prayer with the older students and the singing of the national anthem—we should sing O’Canada more. Next I headed on to a packed school bus to head to the ‘field’ which is more like a packed dirt with a few lines hastily drawn on it. For the next hour the kids match, exercise and practice a choreographed dance in preparation for sports day. I join in marching as I figured out how to do it the day before and try to help the youngest groups with their timing and spacing. Out-to means left Cee-to means right (although later in the day Hamid would tell me this is wrong)—I thought it important to know when instructing wee-ones. After gym class we head back to the school, the kids are onto their next class and I go in search of Hamid to see if his morning work is done. He says it is which I am learning means another 45-60 minutes before we will actually be on the road.
When we finally move from his office half an hour has passed and we head everywhere besides towards the car. We ended up moving around 11 instead of 10 which had been the original goal although 11 was quite the improvement on yesterday when we did not leave Hamid’s until 1:30. As getting anywhere is a headache the fact that Hamid had a few tasks to do around the city mean it would be sometime before we actually headed towards the villages. We would eventually start at the first supplier of the day around 1.I am toured through Taj Mahal Carpets by what is an ever changing 3 or 4 men proceed to show me through their stock. *side note, we should do our best to keep the same people with our customers when possible even if that means delayed/switching lunches. It ads unneeded confusion and we should be simplifying things for our customers.* I ended up selecting a handful of carpets here mainly because I felt like I had to show Angus something; I am now realizing that is not my puporse. I am here to be strict and find the deals Angus does not have the time to find. Out of the 14 I picked Angus only agreed with one. Truth be told I kind of knew it was the only one he was going to want. I am glad I picked the others however to narrow in on the price, style and quality I should be looking for.
From Taj Mahal we headed to Girdish International a place where I spent the next hour and a half looking through hundreds of 8x5’6 and 6x4 Gabbeh’s before narrowing it down to 65 I liked, less 4 which they ‘fixed’ the colour of for me. When Girdish offered to fix the colour I was unsure how he would accomplish that in minutes and naively I allowed him to. I watched as his staff proceeded to go over the parts of the carpet that I wanted the colour fixed with pastels. I realize that there is no way I can sell these 4 fixed carpets so I note which ones they are so when Angus arrives we can exclude them from the final selection. I did learn a good lesson—do not ask to have the colour fixed just move on.
After Girdish we move to Hamid’s own stock of Gabbeh Carpets and I go through the same steps as before. At times I feel like I am being overly critical because most of the minor wiggles in lines or odd bits of colour change I actually prefer—it shows the human factor. What I have to keep telling myself is those little bits that I think add character customers see as faults; reasons to pass on it. They want perfection in a handmade product which makes absolutely no sense. If the structure is sound then why worry, those little errors in judgement are stories and proof of the handmade nature of the carpet. I am not the customer, so I pass.
After Hamid’s and more tea; yes I drink tea now, coffee too, my hot beverage rule has been abolished. After that we start heading back into Varanasi and the approaching evening; a white knuckled return drive that takes nearly two hours. I will end of that however to save the driving details for the Art of Driving post whenever I get around to finishing it.


Some random observations from the day:
- People seem to be afraid to question authority or even ask questions; it is either that or they do not want to learn. There is a definitely lack of aspiration existing in India.
- Movie posters have pictures of every character in the movie
- Companies offer to cement people’s walls to the size of their advertisements. It gives poor people a chance to have a better wall in exchange for having words that they probably do not understand as they will be in English most of the time on their house. Sometimes the entire outside is blanketed in one big advertisement, and each year the company returns to clean and repaint the wall. Apparently this is highly sought after by the locals and a source of pride.