The Three Stooges of Amravati

Having toured Ajanta, the Bums had a very late start and a long distance (nearly 500 km) to cover in order to reach Nagpur, the geographical center of India. We were moving rapidly through the high, dusty plains until we approached a toll booth in Amravati.

Quite suddenly, a jeep containing three men pull in front of us and wave us off the highway. We are a bit confused and continue to the toll booth and pull alongside the official office.

Three men, dressed rather badly in cheap polo shirts and crappy jeans, get out and speak to us in Hindi. They look like men headed to a smoky all male bar like we witnessed in Thrissur. None speak English; confusion reigns. They pull out some cheaply laminated ids that could have easily been created at Playland and claim they are from some tax collector agency. I grin and may have even laughed at the sight of the cheap ids. They insist that we go with them to some office back in town. We refuse. It is getting late and we feel that these stooges are out for rupees.

Bennett fumbles around for the Lonely Planet guide, looking for the word Baksheesh, having forgotten the word for bribe. After a delay, we decide to go back to their office with them, as it was unlikely we would be heading towards Nagpur until the matter is settled.

Their boss emerges from the office and laughs; he is amused by the idiocy of his stooges. He sees our rickshaw, which is clearly non-commercial, and proceeds with protocol. He wants to see the contents of my bag. I pull out my dirty laundry bag. It is enough. He waves us off and we wave back continuing our trip to Nagpur.

Posted at 05:00PM Jan 04, 2007 by D Bums Comments[0]