Amritsar Trip: Interesting people on the way (including a thief)

Here are some characters I met on my trip:

1) The guy on the auto: This is the guy that got on the auto with me as I was heading to the bus stop. He was very nice in offering to show me the way and just stopped short of actually helping me get on the bus. Nice guy. Except for one thing. He asked me about what I do and I said I was an engineer. He asked me if I didn't want to do an MBA. First off, that was an odd remark. But it later turned out that he was trying to get an MBA so that explained a little, but he still talked as though every engineer was supposed to get an MBA! And then he asked me what my salary was! Amazing how dense some people in India get. I had to politely tell him that I didn't want to share that information. He just stared at me.

2) The Punjabi old lady in the temple: At the Durgiana temple, I was just strolling around the compound when this nice old lady asked me for the time. Or rather, I just heard the word "time" and some hindi-ish words and I responded with the time. Then she noticed the camera around my neck and said "Take a picture of me" and I smiled and was actually about to ask her to pose but she continued talking. And at this point I realized that she wasn't talking in Hindi, but in Punjabi! They sound alike to a certain point but beyond generalities like we just exchanged it gets harder to decipher. But I could guess in a broad sense what she was saying - she was narrating a funny anecdote. Something about her daughter and rice and presumably something to do with a camera, since the camera triggered her monologue. I didn't want to interrupt her and tell her I wasn't following, so I just played along, laughing at the right moments (it's not hard to take your cues from the other person about that) and at some point she got serious in her narration and I soberly nodded my head. I was hoping she wouldn't ask any follow up questions and luckily she didn't. She finished her anecdote on a big flourish and walked away just as she delivered the punchline. I just laughed with her and walked away shaking my head at the whole incident.

3) The thief at the hotel: To be clear, this was actually the manager of the hotel. When I landed in Amritsar, I just walked into the first hotel that said "A/C rooms" and asked the manager for the price, he said "Rs. 550" and I agreed to check in. I checked out before noon and after my sightseeing, I checked back into the same hotel since the other hotels were either full or were too expensive. On the third day, as I was getting ready to leave, the manager calls me aside and tells me, "If the owner of the hotel sees you, tell him that you're paying Rs. 450 for the room." "What the hell?" I asked, "You've been overcharging me and pocketing the rest?" "Yes," he tells me with a smile. I was too shocked to get outraged. And tired. And a little amused actually. So I told him that I will keep quiet if he pays me half of what he overcharged me. (In retrospect, I should asked for all the money back but like I said, I wasn't thinking straight from all the heat and exhaustion.) He gave me Rs. 30! I let it go. But after I reached home, I realized that I accidentally took the remote control from the room with me. Evens out?

4) The cab driver: This was the cab driver who took me to the Wagah border. The entire trip I was worried that at some point he would just pull over and rob me, and either leave me stranded or just kill me. Luckily neither happened. Instead he shared lots of tales about politics in Amritsar. (Did you know former Cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu is contesting from there?)  He also explained those fires I saw on the fields (turns out they burn the stalks after the harvest to avoid having to uproot them individually). He was a farmer so that was he knew a lot about this. Shrewd guy though. I bargained him down from Rs. 700 to Rs. 650, but he took the Rs. 50 from me anyway, calling it "Parking fees". I didn't want to make a big deal since I had a good time.