Comments on: Dilli Notes - 1

By: TheThirdMan

TheThirdMan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:56:11 +0000

Differences in the rates of admission for Indian residents and non-residents was determined by purchasing power of the unit currency with the US $ as the reference.

The US $ can buy approximately 10 times what an Indian rupee can buy in India; it seems fair to charge what PDCS moans to have paid.

By: dacoit

dacoit — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:56:14 +0000

PS: All pictures and extended ISBT stories are eagerly awaited.

By: dacoit

dacoit — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:54:39 +0000

This dual price structure at ASI sites has been in place for at least a decade. It seems that the difference now is that the foreigner/outsider price is being enforced not only on the pigmentally challenged but also on suspected NRIs. Of course, like most all the segments of the vast and glorious Indian bureaucracy, if one is committed and deft it is usually possible to negotiate favorable treatment. For example, despite being a gora/gringo (albeit with a mildly olive tone), I have managed a couple of times to obtain the ‘Indian’ price by chatting with gatekeepers in Hindustani and fabricating a story about a Goan mother, a Portuguese father, and a life being tossed between India and abroad. They happily chuckled and charged me the Indian price. So it is not simply that ‘brown’ NRIs suffer, but the flexibility goes both ways, and one is ultimately at the mercy of the man with the badge, which can be mitigated with the art of storytelling. Accountability to rules, of course, has receded to the point of near invisibility.

Desiknitter, I agree with you that the ASI and these ticket-takers skimming some money from those who have is a fine strategy. However, the scenario with the BD friends underscores the fact that when it comes down to brass tacks the admissions policies are not about redistribution of resources from rich to poor. Rather, this is purely about nationality - fleecing the outsider. The explosion of NRI/PIO as a rights-bearing status simply obscures the picture.

By: Posterity

Posterity — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:03:37 +0000

Be precise, historian. Who is this mysterious “companion” who suddenly accompanies you to, of all places, sabzi mandi? Posterity deserves to know beforehand.

By: desiknitter

desiknitter — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:14:27 +0000

I wrote a PS that your maths problems seemed simpler than Sepoy’s, and of course, I got it WRONG! So am typing again.
Delhi in wintertime is truly a delight; do share your photos here. I have a funny ISBT story to narrate too….

By: desiknitter

desiknitter — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:10:55 +0000

I am not averse to differential price structures, if reasonably and properly applied, because if it has to do with purchasing power, heck, it’s fine cause the ASI needs money. What happens at the Taj (and in countless other tourists sites in India) is that no matter what this structure or logic, you can get around it or get caught in it arbitrarily, and it’s yet another avenue for the folks there making some cash on the side (and for those with foreign passports to suddenly assert their Indianness and pay less too!). What’s even worse than Europeans or US tourists being harassed is folks from other countries in the subcontinent who don’t have the same exchange-rate power: I have two friends from BD, one of whom was waved inside the Taj with a wink saying he was “really Indian” and the other had to pay the foreigner’s fee. Totally arbit. Same with Indians, both resident and non.

By: Zoey

Zoey — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:14:12 +0000

Imagine how ludicrous white people feel, to count as 37.5 Indians…even if they’ve lived in the subconty for almost two years and work in the subconty and are married to an Indian…

By: 37.5 Indians at Blogbharti

37.5 Indians at Blogbharti — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:08:01 +0000

[...] Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi over at Land of Lime is declared a non-Indian by the ticket-checker at the Taj. Until this past weekend, we always wondered how the ASI gatekeepers would determine the nationality of visitors and assumed that color would be an obvious marker. But at the Taj, I was suspected to be a non-Indian / outsider and challenged to produce an Indian identity. I wasn’t carrying my passport (who would on a day trip to Agra) and my driver’s license was being renewed in Mysore. So bereft of all Indian identity, I was declared equal to thirty seven and half Indians and made to buy a Rs 750 ticket to enter the Taj. Posted by River [...]

By: sepoy

sepoy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:04:25 +0000

I am sure Agamben talked about Indians worth 37.5 Indians in India.

Question is: Was your West Coast Liberal, San Francisco Values, University Professorhsip taken in? That still totals to 37.5 Indians?