Bangalore, Karnataka, India – Out to a local’s joint for breakfast. Then, we went out to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens to sit and read during the afternoon. I sat on a bench aways away from Rich, but situated so I could see him at his bench. After beating off like the fourth kid selling bags of popcorn, one of those light bulbs went off inside my head. When we were in Goa, Rich told one of the vendors that I wanted to buy some of whatever he was selling. The vendor then walked over to me and kept trying to sell me his stuff. I told him I did not want any and he said “that guy on the beach said you did, so buy some.”
It is a known fact that you cannot get rid of these guys when they have been given a referral. Remembering Goa, I called one of the kids over and told him Rich was really hungry and had been looking for someone selling food. The kid went over to Rich and I could see Rich shaking his head no. The kid then started making these motions pointing at me, then pointing to Rich, telling him to buy some. I can tell this “use the vendor to harass your friend”. Game might be one that would be played for the duration of our trip.
It was getting warm and we were getting hungry, so we headed back into town for a thali. Only this time, it was served on a large banana leaf, no fuss, no muss, and no dishes to wash. When we walked into the restaurant, I sat down in front of my banana leaf and the Indian waiter removed the banana leaf and put a plate in front of me. I then took the banana leaf from across the table, put my plate across the table, placed the banana leaf in front of me, and then he stole a banana leaf again. It took three tries of this game for me to get the banana leaf I wanted. It was back to the room to watch MTV, to dinner, then back for more MTV.