Buying a notebook³⁵

I went to the store in our hotel in Puerto La Cruz to buy a small notebook. The owner said, “The price is forty bolivars, but that is too much. You give me twenty. It is not even worth twenty, but I have to charge you twenty.”

I said, “Fine,” since I liked the cute notebook.

Then he said, “Are you the same gentleman that I see on the ring the ladies wear?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “Oh, I saw you in the newspaper with the President.”

I said, “I have seen all three presidents — the present one, the future one and the previous one.”

The man said, “I am so happy and so honoured to meet you. Please tell me how your people support themselves if they always go around with you.”

I said, “No, only for one month they have come here.”

Then he asked me the significance of the sari. He said, “It is very beautiful. Where does it come from?”

I said, “India. I am Indian, and I like this Indian form of dress.”

He said, “You have Indian skin, but your face is not Indian. You don’t look like an Indian.”

He was so happy, and he was shaking my hand. I wanted to buy two T-shirts for some disciples who had stayed home, so he said, “My hands are dirty. You please take them yourself.”