‘No… 150 rupees’, said the rickshaw driver as I offered my bundle of scruffy notes. ‘No. We agreed 50!’ I realised straight away I was being ripped off. There’s no way he could have known whether my bundle was 50, 150 or even 1050; the notes were all rolled up and their value was imperceptible. ‘You said fifty. You take that, or you get ZEROOOOOO!‘ I reinforced the message by making the sign of a zero with my hand. He looked at me, not so much shocked, but perplexed at my over-the-top reaction.
We were still 20km from Bannerghatta National Park and here I was acting like a resident monkey, not a visitor. I handed the scam-artist the 50, gave him “the” look, apologised to Lauren for my outburst. We then continued on our journey to meet my cousins (who I’d just realised were closer than I previously thought).



