Chapter 160 Limiting Imagination
Varanasi is strictly speaking a tourist city, and its economy is closely related to tourism.
For example, the service industry, handicrafts, and catering industry, millions of people rely on the jobs provided by these industries for their livelihoods.
Of course, every city has its own industrial area. Varanasi's textile factories, leather factories, and machinery factories are distributed on both sides of the city.
Nilav drove Ron around the city, mainly inspecting the industrial area.
"See? Those factories are right next to the Ganges, so it's very convenient to use water," he introduced with pride.
“Are these factories just discharging their wastewater directly into the Ganges?”
Wherever Ron looked, large amounts of wastewater with suspicious foam were being poured into the Ganges in a blatant manner.
"There is only one river nearby." Aditya said as a matter of course.
"But this is a holy river where believers bathe and pray."
"Lord Shiva will bless us. The water of the Ganges can purify all filth!" Nirav and Aditya said in unison.
Okay, in the Ganges.
Indians have no awareness of environmental protection at all. They would rather pray to God than take any action.
Looking at the foamy and muddy river water, Ron felt that old Abby's death was not unjust.
"I want the land southwest of Varanasi." Ron made his choice without hesitation.
It is located in the upper reaches of the Ganges, and the sanitary conditions there are still worrying, but at least they are acceptable.
"No problem, I'll talk about it." Aditya seemed confident about everything.
He directed Nirav to drive the car to the residence of an official, a magnificent house with a front porch, a courtyard, and a richly decorated main house.
The bodyguards at the door were wearing uniforms. Ron took a closer look and realized that they were real police officers on duty.
This was not the first time he had encountered such a scene, so he was no longer surprised.
Indian officials can really use public resources for personal gain. It is very normal for them to let police officers serve as their personal bodyguards.
Aditya seemed to be very familiar with this place. The police at the door not only did not stop him, but also greeted him flatteringly.
Walking through the front porch, Ron was surprised by the strange layout.
They walked along the outer wall, which had been newly decorated with white marble and carved in bas-relief with playful angels and winged cupids, a bizarre combination of classical Greek art and modern pornography.
He couldn't even say what style it was, especially since it appeared in conservative north India.
Ron guessed that the owner of this house was either an abstract artist or a wealthy old man who was a pretentious snob.
It turned out to be the latter. When they entered the main hall, they saw a huge family photo hanging on the front wall, next to it was a statue of Krishna inlaid with gold and jewels.
Every corner of the room was filled with a dazzling array of ornaments: a French Avisa tray here, a priceless antique vase there.
The styles of the artworks are extremely inconsistent, and it is a complete display of artistic wealth.
The owner of the mansion, Shah Dubey, who was the key person mentioned by Aditya, received them warmly.
Especially after hearing that Ron was from Mumbai, Dubey couldn't wait to show him around his mansion.
They didn't even have time to discuss business before they were taken out of the house in a daze.
Needless to say, they had just seen the garden. Then they were taken to a tall building, which was a gymnasium added by Dube, which contained sports equipment such as ski-type racing machines and treadmills.
The adjacent house has a jacuzzi with gold taps.
Then Dube led them through the main building, outside of which was a huge staircase that led directly to the terrace, as if the staircase in the movie "Gone with the Wind" had been transplanted here.
The terrace is covered with green grass and roses, like a roof garden.
"Do you like it here?" Dube asked.
"Of course!" Ron and the others nodded.
"How does it compare to Mumbai?" Dube stared at Ron.
"This is the most magnificent house I've ever seen. Mumbai can't even compare to this."
Dube sighed, very satisfied with Ron's answer.
However, the tour wasn't over yet; the grand finale was yet to come. Dubey became increasingly excited and led Ron and the others to the main dining room.
A wall of the restaurant had been demolished, and in its place was an alcove that extended into the garden. A glass screen separated the alcove from the restaurant, and behind the screen was a small, shimmering marble pool, with a stream of clear water gurgling outward into the garden.
Dubey pulled out a giant remote control and pointed it at the ceiling above the dining table, and Ron pressed buttons as he imagined what might pop out.
Something magical happened, the heavy Lutyens stone roof slowly and silently opened.
You have no idea what's inside. Ron and the others seemed to have walked into a 007 movie and were completely stunned by what they saw.
When the roof was fully opened, a dazzling sight appeared before their eyes: the roof turned into a glass pyramid that was exactly modeled after the top of the Louvre in Paris, and the glass on it reflected the green terrace in the distance.
This time it was Ron and the others' turn to breathe a sigh of relief, their faces half shocked and half envious.
This is the right way for a Brahmin master to live his life!
Compared with Dube's house, Su's estate really looked like a run-down place.
This is not the first time Aditya has visited this place, but every time he is fascinated by it he is speechless.
Dube turned to them with an expression of uncontrollable joy on his face, "Now what?"
"Amazing!" Ron praised sincerely.
Is this the power of the local tycoons in Uttar Pradesh? Sure enough, the few hectares of land at home limited his imagination.
The group returned to the main house, and while waiting for the servants to serve tea, Dubey showed them another luxury item.
The world's first commercial 42-inch plasma TV was produced by Japan's Fujitsu and sold for $60,000.
Looking at the colorful and clear pictures on the TV, Ron even felt a sense of absurdity.
In a village just ten kilometers away, many families don’t even have electricity and still use kerosene lamps.
But the luxurious decoration of Du Bei's house seems to be at the forefront of technology.
Ron once again experienced the division in Indian society, the lower and upper classes, two completely different worlds.
"Aditya said a few days ago that you are planning to return to Varanasi to open a factory?" Dubey spoke after taking a sip of tea.
"I grew up here, so of course I want to do something for my hometown." Ron said calmly.
"You're right. Varanasi is no worse than Mumbai. You came back at the right time."
Dubey said that Uttar Pradesh is planning to set up a development council, and as long as Ron seizes the opportunity, he will become a guest of honor of the state government.
Aditya missed no opportunity to interrupt and hinted about the dam.
"Those foreigners will definitely cause trouble, but we have Ron now. His Sur Group is well-known throughout India. As long as this investment is completed, we will have successfully attracted investment!"
"Great!" Dubey agreed. "That way the House of Lords won't say anything, and we can also shut up the media."
"That's it." Aditya winked at the right time.
Without saying a word, Ron took out a few bundles of rupees from his bag and placed them nakedly on the table.
They were all large 100-denomination rupee notes, totaling 1 million, neatly stacked there.
"Brother Aditya, thank you for bringing prosperity to Varanasi!" Dubey's enthusiasm was visibly raised to a higher level.
"We are all from Varanasi, and Varanasi is ours." Aditya shook his head happily.
"You're right, Ron, Varanasi is ours."
There is no doubt that Dubey's mansion is luxurious, and the source of this luxury is bribery.
He is very powerful in the state parliament and has all sorts of tricks to make money.
For example, selling votes to the highest bidder, accepting bribes from civil servants to transfer them to comfortable positions, allocating industrial licenses for personal gain, and allocating the best land in the city to relatives and friends through secret operations.
Now that he had received Ron's generous benefits, he did not hesitate and directly found a map of Varanasi and spread it on the ground.
"Which piece of land do you want?" he asked.
"Here." Ron pointed south.
"Is this enough?" Du Bei drew a circle casually.
"Oh! Thirty hectares, that's enough." Ron's mouth dropped open in surprise. "The price?"
"One dollar per hectare, Varanasi welcomes the Sur Group," Dubey said with unusual understatement.
It seems that they are not discussing land transactions, but selling vegetables, which is so sloppy that it is shocking.
Thirty hectares is 450 acres, which is almost four times the size of the Mumbai factory and is larger than you can imagine.
Ron spent more than 7 million rupees to buy the land in Mumbai, which is now worth 30 US dollars.
Of course, bribery is also one of the costs of purchasing land, but no matter how you compare it, the disparity is too great.
With such a large piece of land, a branch factory could not fully utilize it, but Ron was not stupid enough to warn him.
Land is an asset that maintains its value relatively well in any era. If a factory cannot use up all the land, it can be kept for development for other purposes.
After securing the most urgent land use, Dube also thoughtfully stated that he would apply for an industrial license for Ron's Sur Electric Appliances.
Although India has gradually opened up its economic policies, there is still a licensing system in some industries, and there are still barriers to entry.
These are all small matters, and Aditya is capable of handling them even without Dubey's intervention.
They didn't stay here for long. After the deal was done, they had to leave quickly because there were visitors waiting in line outside to visit Dube.
In Uttar Pradesh, most decisions are not made in parliament but in the privacy of an official's residence.
"Ron, when are you going to build the factory?" asked Aditya.
"The sooner the better. I'll call Mumbai today and ask them to send some people over."
“What’s the scale of investment?”
"Eight million rupees. I plan to build two production lines to meet the demand here in North India."
"Eight million!"
Aditya and Nirav were shocked by Ron's generosity, which was almost enough money to build four dams.
"It seems like your business is really successful," Aditya praised. "Leave all the engineering problems to us."
"Okay!" Ron agreed.
Although his second uncle had just come up with a magical dam project where 1=4, Ron believed that he could distinguish between public and private matters.
Ron was even more worried about leaving it to other people, after all, his own family members were more reliable.
Aditya is also the municipal commissioner here, and his intervention can avoid many official troubles.
"Ron, it's right to open a factory in Varanasi. The farmers here, a salary of 200 rupees is enough to make them happy." Nirav is also very optimistic about this decision.
200 rupees a month? Ron sighed. This salary level is probably only one-tenth of that in Mumbai.
Uttar Pradesh is underdeveloped and landlocked, with inconvenient water transportation. However, the low cost is enough to offset all these disadvantages.
In the future, the water air conditioners produced here can be directly shipped to several neighboring states, which can save a lot of shipping costs.
Well, Ron began to look forward to what the factory would look like after it was completed.
(End of this chapter)
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