Chapter 153 The Real Master
The Suer family was a large landowner in the vicinity, and a large area of land around was divided up by their family.
Ron's grandfather worked for the British in his early years and received many rewards. The land was accumulated at that time.
After his death, he divided his property among his four sons, but some of it was lost after India's independence and Henunu came to power.
Ron's father was the most educated of his brothers and became a teacher. He had no interest in farming and only kept enough to make a living, then sold the rest to his brothers.
He moved to Varanasi to teach, and would occasionally return to the countryside.
All the land under his name was handed over to Ron's uncle to manage, and after he went to Mumbai, he almost stopped caring about it.
The place where Ratan is taking Ron now is the land entrusted to him by Ron's father.
Although the Suer family was impoverished, they were still veritable landlords.
Well, run-down.
They had manors, land, and people, but in the eyes of other Brahmins, they were still impoverished.
True Brahmins rarely make their living from agriculture, as traditional caste laws prohibit them from touching the agricultural tools used by lower classes.
Ratan took Ron through the flat fields. At the end of the view, a low factory could be vaguely seen. It was a sugar factory.
The endless sugarcane fields in Uttar Pradesh provide it with raw materials. Now is the harvest season, and farmers from all directions drive tractors or drive donkey carts to transport sugarcane to this factory.
The queue stretched for several kilometers, waiting to be weighed. Under the scorching sun, the farmers waited quietly, sometimes for up to three days.
The sugar mill owners haven't added more queues or scales, and the farmers don't seem to be complaining. This has been going on in Uttar Pradesh for hundreds of years, and everyone is used to it.
Ron originally thought that his land was mainly grown with sugarcane, but when he saw the lush green land in front of him, he was stunned.
The shape of this leaf is a bit strange, completely different from that of sugarcane.
"Ron, this whole area is yours!" Ratan proudly drew a circle in the air with his arm.
"How many acres?" he asked.
"100 acres, about 40 hectares."
"What's growing in the fields?"
"Hemp grass."
“!!!”
Holy shit! The poisonous Xiao turned out to be me?
Ron was numb, his brain went into a state of shutdown.
"These are all yours," Ratan said proudly, putting his arm around his shoulders. "You can make a lot of money."
"Just cut it off." Ron felt hopeless.
"What?" Ratan suspected he had heard wrongly.
"Doesn't Uttar Pradesh care about this?" Ron was surprised. Even the gangs in Mumbai didn't dare to be so rampant.
"You're worried about those officials, right?" Ratan breathed a sigh of relief, "Don't worry, they already know everything.
This is a cash crop in Uttar Pradesh and farmers depend on it to support their families.
You don't know how many people envy us. In order to protect this piece of hemp, I specially got some weapons and arranged people to patrol day and night.
Otherwise, these treasures will be stolen quickly, and you have to keep an eye on them all the time."
Ratan's tone was full of worry about his career.
"Why don't you grow sugarcane? Wasn't it good before?" Ron asked weakly.
"How much is sugarcane worth? We've been growing it for so many years and still don't have air conditioning or a TV, but we can with hemp!"
"This thing will eventually cause trouble. You never know when the authorities will take action to clean it up." Ron advised.
"Don't worry, Uncle Aditya is the Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi, no one dares to make trouble for him."
The Aditya mentioned by Ratan is Ron's second uncle, also a close relative.
In his early years, he bribed his way into the position of municipal commissioner and was the only member of the Suhr family involved in politics.
Ron sighed. Uttar Pradesh is a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery, and its reputation is well-deserved.
"There are a lot of hemp plants growing here. Look over there," Ratan pointed, and there was a larger area in the distance.
Ron looked around and found that only a few people were growing sugarcane.
Farmers openly plant hemp, and it grows in a completely wild manner.
"This business is very competitive now, but if we two brothers join forces, we will definitely be able to make it bigger and stronger." Ratan next to him was still imagining the future.
"This land will be transferred to you in the future."
"Huh?" Ratan was stunned.
"The premise is to exchange it for another piece of land. I need a piece of land in Varanasi city."
"Ron, I may not have explained it clearly enough, but these hemp plants in the field can bring you wealth that you can't imagine." Ratan gestured with his hands.
"I know, but I'm still better at running a factory than growing hemp."
"Brother, are you sure?" Ratan sighed. He couldn't understand Ron's weird idea.
These hemp plants are as valuable as gold, but he is thinking about messing up the factory instead of doing his job!
"Of course, I've thought it through clearly." Ron smiled and put his arm around his shoulders. "I can't give up my career in Mumbai. I came back this time to open a factory. Let's go to Uncle Aditya in a couple of days to discuss how to proceed."
"Land in Uttar Pradesh is worthless. Everything can be done with money," Ratan said nonchalantly.
"That would be great." Ron nodded happily.
He was not prepared to inherit this large field of hemp.
Although you don't have to worry too much about legal issues when doing business in North India.
But Ron will have to pay attention to the impact when he sits down to eat in the future.
Things that are expressly prohibited by Indian law are not suitable to be put on the table.
It’s just a pity that there is such a large piece of land, which is bigger than his factory in Mumbai.
More than 600 acres, 40 hectares, this poor Brahmin turned out to be a veritable landlord.
However, his goal is not to become a farmer. If he can move his land to the city, even if it is smaller, it will not be a loss.
Ron didn't continue patrolling his territory. He and Latan took a walk around and then went back.
Only after seeing the mud houses in the village could Ron appreciate how magnificent the Sur family's manor was.
There is more than one marble-paved courtyard, and there is also a somewhat exaggerated fountain in the garden.
The living room ceiling, with its border of pale blue and white alabaster decorated with floral patterns, resembles a grand ballroom in Bombay.
While most families in the distant village were still using kerosene lamps, Suer's family had already achieved complete electrification, with electric lights, telephones, electric fans, air conditioners... everything was available.
As Hindus, they have their own sun temple inside the estate.
There are hundreds of servants divided into different professions, such as chefs who cook, cleaners who clean, gardeners who trim flowers and plants, and masseurs...
These servants always have their backs bent and attentive and flattering smiles on their faces.
They would never sit on a stool, and would just squat in an empty corner when they took a break.
If Ron took just two steps closer, they would stutter and be unable to speak.
Well, he finally understood what a real Indian master is.
Ron and his parents also have their own courtyard in the manor, and he is still living there this time.
Back home, Ratan called him into the room mysteriously.
"Look what this is?" He took out a large bundle of rupees from somewhere.
"Where did you get so much money?" Ron roughly estimated that it was at least hundreds of thousands.
He knew that Ratan also had a job at a telecommunications company and that he could never save that much with that salary.
"These are all yours." Ratan pressed the bundle of money into his hands.
"What?" Ron was confused.
"Hemp grass!" Ratan smiled smugly, "It's not too late for you to regret it now."
"When did you start growing hemp?" Ron asked.
"Last year, this is the second season, the scale is bigger and the harvest will be greater."
"Thanks." Ron shrugged and accepted it.
He didn't need the hundreds of thousands of rupees, but it was his land and he deserved it.
"By the way, I have to go back to Varanasi. A movie will be shot in Uttar Pradesh."
"Movie?" Ratan was a little confused.
"Yes, a Bollywood movie. I invested in it."
"Bollywood?!" Ratan shouted.
"It's just a low-budget movie..." Ron tried to explain.
But Ratan had already run out in a hurry, shouting about Ron's plan to make a movie.
So the whole family was alarmed again, and everyone sat in the living room, as if holding a meeting to decide the fate of the family.
"Will you play a role in the movie?"
"The movie will be filmed at the manor?"
"What do you need us to arrange?"
Their questions came one after another, and they were extremely enthusiastic.
It was obvious that they were more interested in the film issue than inquiring about Ron's factory.
That's Bollywood, the place that all Indians yearn for.
People in rural areas may not have watched TV or used air conditioning, but they have definitely seen Bollywood movies.
Every city has at least a few cinemas, and every village has its own small theater.
Yes, no matter how poor the village is, there must be a small screen to play movies.
The total number of movie screens in India was close to 12,000, and that was in 1993. Indians' passion for movies is hard for outsiders to imagine.
Ron answered their questions one by one, and then said that they needed to find a temple of Durga Puja and arrange people to protect the safety of the crew.
"Leave all this to me," Ratan volunteered. "I'll stay with you until the filming is finished."
Uncle Prash nodded in agreement, "Ratan knows someone in the city."
"Won't this affect your work? The film will be shot for a month and a half." Ron reminded him.
"No need to go to the telecom company." Ratan shook his head casually. "I work less than ten days a year."
Ratan is a formal employee of the Indian Telecommunications Corporation, a legitimate state-owned enterprise, and his treatment is the same as that of civil servants.
As a Brahmin, with a little help from connections, one can enter the government public sector, which countless people dream of.
In addition to a salary of up to Rs 6,000, there are also many non-cash benefits.
For example, providing free or low-cost housing in urban areas, free household electricity and free phone calls.
By the standards of other villagers, this was a huge income, but it was not enough to support the family's lavish lifestyle.
Needless to say, it's all thanks to the hemp, which is Ratan's side job.
As for formal jobs in the telecommunications sector, how many Brahmins have you seen running to work happily every day?
The correct way to be a Brahmin is to work in a temporary position and get a salary while being a master at home.
No, it is even embarrassing to be such a rule-abiding Brahmin in Uttar Pradesh.
Ratan's real job was to extort telecom users, while daily technical maintenance was all left to outsourced workers.
When users were installing their phones, he would deliberately make things difficult for them until they gave him a tip.
Even after receiving the money, he would still demand a price that was often much higher than the original price. He would also record incomplete bills and secretly make substitutions.
After all the fees were paid, he would instruct the workers to tamper with the telephone lines when installing them, causing users' phones to have problems every few days.
At this time, the user must call the telecommunications bureau, wait for the maintenance personnel to come, give tips, say nice things... and repeat the cycle.
For Ratan, a bad telecommunications network is the best telecommunications network. Only when there are repair reports can there be a steady flow of bribes.
Sometimes, in order to make extra money, he would even cut off other people's phone lines for no reason.
Over time, most families would rather spend money to install two telephone lines if they can afford it, so that at least one of them can be kept working.
For Ratan, work doesn't matter; movies are the truth.
The family members were so enthusiastic, what could Ron say? Of course, he would enjoy the convenience brought by this privilege.
He was going to Varanasi to see how Shiv and the others were preparing.
(End of this chapter)
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