Lessons Learned

The events described below happened a couple of days ago. I have just been to busy to post this on the blog.

In my life I have always had a trust and respect for the people around me. I assume if I demonstrate trust and respect to someone, they will do the same for me.

Since the moment I arrived in India I have felt dubious when dealing with Indians. Before I came, multiple experienced travelers told me to be very careful when purchasing items as a foreigner and to always haggle because there are no fixed prices in India. I was told to watch out for price gouging, and being short changed. I accepted these words, but in my heart I didn’t want it to be true. This is why, since I have been here, I have been so open with everyone I have met, especially Indians. I want to learn from them but I also want to share with them my life back home and western ideas.

I am coming to learn this was an incredible mistake. In my attempts to develop friendships with Indians I associate with every day and develop trust with those individuals, they are taking advantage of knowing my background and using it to their personal benefit. This saddens me greatly, because I want so much to be able to trust these people and think of Indians as being good and honest individuals (I do not mean to offend anyone by saying this). Now after the experience I had today (now 4 days ago), I am putting up my walls of defense, only allowing people to know the very basics of who I am and why I am here; this way eliminating the potential of people taking advantage of my good nature and trust in human beings.   

The housing front desk is where one can find a wealth of information to make your stay more enjoyable at ICRISAT. They can help you settle-in, arrange for adventures outside of campus, and provide you with a wealth of information on things to do on and off campus. Although, they have rather poor customer service at times, I have always made an effort to stay pleasant and polite with them. I have tried to make friends with several of the staff members since I got here, trying to strike-up conversations and treat them with trust and respect.

Since there are no bodies of salt water here, I have taken up swimming in the pool. No one told me when I first arrived whether the pool was included in the rent for my dorm. Like an honest individual, not wanting to steal an amenity the housing department offered to its guest, I inquired. I did this last week. When they told me I had to pay, there seemed to be some confusion on what the price was. One minute it was 500 rupees (INR) the next it was 600 INR. This made me uneasy and I requested to see formal documentation of the costs for different amenities they offered. After several minutes of talking back and forth, and the staff members looking on the computer, they could not produce any formal documentation detailing the exact costs to have a membership at the pool. I still wanted to trust them and I paid them 600 INR for a membership. I never received a formal membership card and all I got back was a receipt they filled out wrong -writing in that I had only paid them 500 INR instead of the 600 INR I had given them- which I had them correct. Luckily, I kept the receipt since I never got formal documentation of my membership in case someone questioned me at the pool.

This week a housing front desk staff member informed me that I did not need to pay for a pool membership. He then went on to tell me that he couldn’t give me my money back because it was already sent to the bank. To me, I wasn’t up for an argument; it was just $10 dollars. He told me since I couldn’t get my money back that he would give me a gym membership, which I accepted knowing that I wouldn’t use it and considered my money to the housing department a donation to improve the campus.

Later I was informed by some international employees at ICRSAT that I should have been able to get my money and that the housing staff probably just pocketed the cash I gave them. This was quite disturbing to me since I wanted to be able to trust the people who are taking care of me here and who have access to all of my belongings in my room. Now I am going back to demand my money, not because I care to be $10 dollars richer but because of the principal. I am now going to make a statement to let them know that I don’t trust them and will be inspecting everything that I pay for. Hopefully this will deter them from taking advantage of me in the future.

By this example I hope to demonstrate that such conduct is not acceptable, and is not tolerated in America. I hope they see that by lying and cheating they lose business and customer partnerships that are the life blood of every company. Maybe one day they will change, but for now they will just see the loss of respect I have for them, which is sad.

I did end up getting my money back. I have yet to see the guy who originally sold me the pool membership.