I had a tenant from DC named Nick Chang. He was a Taiwanese but had green card of USA. He was a software Engineer. He was a Buddhist and wanted to visit few Buddhist sites in India. He wanted to visit Sarnath so I suggested him to hire a auto rickshaw for round trip. But he was uncomfortable doing it because he thought that he would not be able to meditate if somebody was waiting for him. I knew that it could be a hassle for a foreigner to deal with our auto rickshaw driver so again I suggested him to take a auto for round trip but he was not interested. I called Raju, the driver whom I hire always, to take Nick to Sarnath. Raju left him at Sarnath and came back.

Returning time Nick hired another auto which was quiet expensive than Raju’s auto. Nick said that he had reserved the whole auto but rickshaw driver let other people come. It was not so bad but definitely not good either. Driver stopped auto at railway station for a while saying that he wanted to buy something and when he came he had a young girl with him who also sat next to Nick. Driver started auto and this girl started touching Nick. Then driver asked Nick if he would like to sleep with that girl. Nick immediately said No but driver was kept telling him to go with that girl.

First he asked for Rs. 5000, then 4000,3000 and finally his last price was only Rs. 1000 for an hour. Nick never wanted to go with her so he never seemed a interested party to driver. Finally he asked for Rs. 500 to spend sometime in auto and Nick again said no but this driver just wanted Nick to buy that girl any how.

By the way when driver felt that Nick would not buy the girl, he stopped auto about 3 KMs before the place where Nick had to go. He said that his auto had some problem that he could not driver it any more. He said that Assi, where he had to go, was only 3 minutes of walk from the place he had stopped auto. Nick just wanted to get rid of it and he thought that Assi was really 3 minutes of walk so he left the auto. But he had to walk for over 30 minutes to get to my home.

Nick was stressed with his first day in Benares and I was shocked to see this new form of prostitution in my hometown. I had heard about prostitutes at Railways station but never realized that they are this much active and auto drivers are their touts.