Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T R E A S U R E 06Director. Nick was explaining that we would have liked to stay in a templeand absorb some of the religion; we were pilgrims, his companionwas a monk, and a monk should stay in a holy place. The hotel manager,the new ear for Ram Rattan Singh’s tirade, waggled his head sympathetically.I got into the unmemorable little room and sat down. Nickhad the energy to operate in terms of purpose. He determined to go offand do business-like things, first of which was to get a bag full of takeawaysnacks from the street and offer them to me. Then, with an “I’ll beback later,” he marched off to duty.N I C KIn Patna I went off for the rest of the day in one of the three-wheeledtaxis prevalent in all Indian cities. These ran a kind of bus route throughthe old part of town and then on to the centre of modern Patna. Thetaxis used a scooter as their basis but with two wheels at the back supportinga compartment that could hold four small locals. The driver satin a cab at the front on a seat designed for one but onto which two morepassengers might squeeze on either side. That is where I preferred totravel; sitting on the edge of his seat, hanging slightly out of the cab, andholding on to the frame just above my head. It doesn’t sound that comfortable,but it was much better than trying to cram my big Westernbody into the back. I never had to wait; they were always coming towardme—winding their way through the traffic, the crowds, and past theoccasional cow—whenever I wanted one. Despite there being so many,they were always full by the time they got to the city centre.I went into New Patna after some things we needed, Western thingswe could only get in a city, like colour slide film or the special small batteriesfor Ajahn Sucitto’s torch, and to collect our mail from the postoffice and visit the bank. I made a point of seeking out the main branchof the State Bank of India as I wanted not only to change some traveller’scheques but also to acknowledge the kind action of their bank manager1 7 9