Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
one mutilated hinge opened into a bathroom far larger than the
bedroom, but equipped solely with a stained squatter, a lone tap
over a very used-looking red plastic bucket that was frosted by - I
hoped - aqueous salts, with a brand-new green plastic
lota
- a pint
jug used like a bidet - hanging from its coated lip. A mahogany
towel rack, like some piece of apparatus from a gym or the deck of a
luxury clipper, bore one single towel so worn to its fringes that I
originally took it for a gypsy shawl.
The hothouse strip lights and gaping windows had attracted a
fair swarm of airborne insect life by now, the room abuzz and aflitter.
On my shoulder I found a thing so much like a leaf that I realised it
had legs and feet equipped with sturdy hooks only when I went to
brush it off.
I killed the lights, thrashing at the busy air with a frayed newspaper
as I retreated into the hotel corridor. A faded print of
The Blue Boy
sagged crookedly in a frame someone had artistically decorated with
shells about a century before - when the walls had last been painted,
no doubt.
'You are liking room, yes?' the clerk stated more than asked.
'I don't know how you manage to provide this kind of quality for
such economical prices,' I said. 'Is
this
what Gandhian philosophy
does when applied to business?'
'Gandhiji was not businessman,' the clerk said earnestly. 'He was
great saint, isn't it.
Mahatma
is meaning
great soul
, you see. Gandhiji
is spiritual father of India.'
'Really?'
'He is
not
father of Indira Gandhi. Many foreigner they think
because name is same that Gandhiji is father of Mrs Gandhi. But
complete
error. This is because of
name
, you see. Both are having
name
of Gandhi, but . . .'
I cut him off. There was urgent business, I implied, and I had to
leave. Reaching the door, I turned and asked if he liked Mrs Gandhi.
'You are the devotee of Acharya Rajneesh?' he asked, suddenly
grave, his voice as low as it could be and still span thirty feet.
'Not at all.'
He relaxed visibly. 'This Mrs Gandhi is too much bad for India.'
He frowned, editing his thoughts. 'She is enemy of Hindu religion.
