I hosted a few new guests at my guest house and it was the first time when I had some problem with my guest and my guest had problems with me, my family and my guest house. A French girl contacted me for housing through my ad somewhere online. We shared a few e-mails and I thought it was okay to host her as she said that she wanted to study Hindi in Benares and had been living in India for the past six months. She seemed like an ideal guest to me because it seemed to me that she already knew India. I arranged Hindi classes for her and went to Gwalior for my tour guide training.

I asked to my other guests about her and they said she seemed a little bit hippie to them but she was not crazy. I asked her if she was feeling well at my place and she said that she was happy. But when I came back to Benares after a few days and met her in person, she seemed not happy at all. She said that I had written on my ad online that there is a kitchen also but in fact the kitchen was not furnished at all. She said that kitchens in the west are furnished and come with gas connection and other utilities but it just doesn’t happen in India.

I tried to explain it to her but she just did not want to hear anything and the second dispute was the rent. She said that the rent I had written on my ad was different than what I was asking for. I asked for Rs. 1000 per month for unlimited broadband Internet access in her room and it seemed too much to her. She said that she would not pay anything for Internet. Rs. 3000 per month for the meal (lunch, dinner and breakfast) was also too much for her. Finally I asked her to decide the rent and she said Rs. 6800 per month for room, meals and Internet. It is not something I charge to my other guests and I was not happy with it.

I asked her two times to go somewhere else if she was not happy at my place but she said everything was fine. But she had problem with everyone at my home. I have few plants in each flat and keep them under the grate so that the plants can get some direct sun light but she moved all the plants to a darker side of the flat and put her mattress right under the grate. When my mother saw it, she moved the plants again under the grate and she got mad. I don’t really know what she wanted. She wanted to stay out of home until late night and this is something I just don’t recommend to my female guests and I don’t know what people can do in the late nights in Varanasi.

There is nothing to do after 9 o’clock but she wanted to stay out until 12 or 1 sometimes. My other guest told me that she had seen this French girl drinking on a boat in Ganga. It was crazy. Finally she left after two months. After she left I went in her flat and saw a big packet of garbage. I wanted to see if she had left some clothes or some items that could be reused. I usually donate the clothes left by my guests to Mother Teresa Home. I found a bottle of Thums Up soft drink and I put it in the toilet because soft drinks are very good to clean toilets.

She left at 7 but came back again around 9 because her train was delayed. When she saw that somebody had touched her garbage, she got really mad. She did not tell me anything that time but she wrote me several emails asking why I saw her garbage. I tried to explain to her the reason behind it but she just did not want to hear anything. I don’t really know if she was crazy, but actually she behaved like a crazy person. It was my house and I did whatever I wanted. I had not seen her garbage while she was staying. Once she left, it was my house again. But her stay taught me several lessons and now I am more attentive choosing any guest.