My friend at the silk factory

On our last day in Varanasi, our enthusiastic tour guide from the hotel, Mr Tripathi, took us to see 'the best silk factory in all of India' (which funnily enough was just down the road), where he assured us we would not only find the best qualities but also very very good price. Despite coming from humble beginnings, arriving in the city many years back with only 30, or 10, no 5 rupee to his name, Mr Tripathi is now, as he put it himself, known by 20,000, no, 30,000 people. AND he does not know them. And for those wondering, this was all down to his personal happiness, good ambition, strength and good karma.

Despite being warned a few times not to trust Mr Tripathi on the way by some locals (we found out he apparently takes about 40-60% commission when he brings tourists into shops), we were there shortly. After a brief demonstration on how the silk was woven, we were then quickly escorted to the shop upstairs, where way more staff than where necessary began to unravel pile after pile of silk scarfs, bed sheets, artwork and more before us.

The man showing me kept on going and going and going. Despite my pleas for him to stop, as I wasn't intending in buying anything, he simply smiled and said; "Don't worry my friend, not to buy, just to look, my friend." After politely excusing myself to look elsewhere in the shop several times, he would then call me back in if I strayed to close to his vicinity: "sir sir, come sir. I just show you my friend. Come sir, Just to look sir. Not to buy sir, just to look." He stressed the fact that all he wanted to do was show me for my own personal happiness, not to buy. My new friend didn't stop there either, always encouraging me to "feel the quality," and kindly letting me know that this "finest quality" could not be found anywhere in the markets, or anywhere else for that matter. It was simply "not possible."

Whenever I admired the odd piece, my friend then went on to offer me several 'very special' prices, just for me only. This was because (along with the fact that we were now good friends) he could see how much I desired it, and, from the bottom of his heart, he just wanted for me to have happiness.

And that was only in the first silk shop I visited that day.