I am a master in India

Chapter 158 Uttar Pradesh Features

"Is this curry chicken?" Mira asked hesitantly, looking at the food on the plate.

"Only when you're full can you have the energy to film." As a Brahmin, Ron took the lead and bit into the fragrant roasted chicken.

Getting him to become a vegetarian is harder than not eating the grass near his nest.

Ron only put on a show in front of outsiders; who knows how many steaks he'd eaten in private.

Seeing him enjoying his meal, Urmira felt a surge of desire within her.

She was surprised that Ron had abandoned his vegetarian diet, while she herself was secretly craving the delicious food in front of her.

Urmila has very fair skin, big, bright eyes that seem to speak, and slightly full lips; she is quite beautiful.

“Here, have a taste.” Ron forked a piece of chicken and brought it to her mouth.

“Ron.” Urmira glanced around instinctively. This was a high-end restaurant, very private.

Ron sent Mary and the others away, and he also told director Schiff that Urmila's scenes should not be delayed that night.

Now it's just the two of them, and they won't run into anyone they know in Varanasi.

Faced with Ron's gentle gaze, Urmira parted her lips slightly and gently bit into the chicken.

"How about it?"

"It was delicious."

Urmila felt a sweet warmth in her heart; it was the first time she had been treated like this.

India is ultimately a patriarchal society, where even women of high castes have little status at home.

Ron is a Brahmin who has built his own business at a young age and is quite famous in Mumbai.

A man like that would be the object of countless actresses' desires in Bollywood, not to mention his handsome face.

Urmila was only nineteen years old and it would be difficult for her to resist such an offensive.

She knew it was reckless of her to sneak out at night to date Ron, and she also knew that the crew would definitely be gossiping behind her back.

But her excitement made her ignore all her concerns; when love takes over, it's hard for others to persuade her otherwise.

“By the way, Ron,” Urmira began, then hesitated.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked her softly.

"I heard from the director that the movie will contain restricted scenes."

Ron couldn't help but laugh out loud, "You know all about Bollywood's R-rated scenes."

Adult film? You're overthinking it.

Even films rated R by the film censorship board will not contain scenes of women being naked.

If anyone dares to defy public opinion, being boycotted is the least of their worries; the director and actors could even be beaten to death by angry citizens.

This is a major religious taboo. Both Hinduism and Catholicism strongly oppose women's nudity.

They really will riot over a single movie shot, and I'm not kidding.

Therefore, the so-called restricted scenes are nothing more than actresses wearing saris and their bodies getting wet.

That's all; compared to adult films from island nations, it's utterly pure and innocent.

What's puzzling is that even these kinds of shots often make male audience members in the movie theater gasp for breath.

That's just how my third brother is; he can associate everything with glue.

"Besides, your character doesn't have these kinds of scenes; he's another incarnation of Difficult Mother."

After hearing Ron's explanation, Urmira finally felt relieved.

She only took the role because of Mary and the others.

Fortunately, nothing happened that would cause her any trouble.

“Speaking of movies, I’ll tell you about them later,” Ron said seriously.

"You even know how to act?" Urmila asked, somewhat surprised.

“I’ve spoken with other Bollywood actors, and this is something that can only be taught through example.”

Yes, he and Manisha have had many in-depth conversations.

After practicing the techniques, it's time to put them to use on Urmila.

Ron didn't arrive at the set until very late the next day. He and Urmila had spent the whole night reading the script until they were exhausted.

Upon arrival, we saw Lanka busy in the guesthouse kitchen, carrying a broom and mop.

The way he gritted his teeth made it seem as if he had a deep-seated grudge against the kitchen floor.

“What happened?” Ron asked producer Agarwal.

"The crew's lunch consisted of cheese curry and vegetarian dumplings."

"and then?"

"After taking a bite of the vegetarian dumpling, he discovered that there was half a cockroach inside."

"Wow!" Ron had a bit of a toothache.

"Then they found worms in the cheese curry."

"Hiss~" Ron gritted his teeth.

Lanka comes from a well-off family and is more particular about the details of life than most people in the crew.

But he has a bad habit: he likes to repeatedly fiddle with his food before putting it in his mouth.

Because of this, he was ridiculed by producer Agarwal many times on set.

Lanka had just learned his lesson and changed his bad habits in the last couple of days when this happened.

So when he stormed into the kitchen to start a cleaning spree, the producer unusually refrained from making fun of him.

Lanka only stopped, panting, after scrubbing the kitchen floor until it shone brightly.

Ron guessed that from today onwards, in addition to his role as a production assistant, he would also have to take on another responsibility on set: cleaning.

Urmira, who was watching the commotion from the sidelines, shuddered with disgust.

Luckily, she had lunch with Ron at the hotel today, otherwise who knows what might have happened.

Faced with Urmira's soft yet pleading eyes, Ron immediately went to find the guesthouse owner.

The rural scenes of "Ode to a Mother" were filmed here, and considering that the guesthouse waived the location fee, Ron simply entrusted the crew's meals to this guesthouse as well. It was somewhat of a favor to the business, but finding cockroaches in the food was really unacceptable.

The three brothers' ancestral skills are clean and hygienic, but you can't try them on yourself.

Lanka followed behind Ron with the same imposing manner, striking a pose as if he were ready to throw a punch if the guesthouse owner didn't agree.

He was fed up with potatoes, and he was fed up with the insect carcasses mixed in with the food.

Finally, the guesthouse owner agreed to check the ingredients more carefully in the future and waived their meal fee for today.

To be honest, Ron was skeptical of his assurances; he had agreed too easily.

Moreover, the general public in India is very tolerant of hygiene requirements. Look at the entire crew, only Lanka is the one who cares the most about this matter.

The others, including the director and producer, didn't take the cockroaches too seriously.

Oh, Urmila cares too, but she's a girl, so it's understandable.

"Did you manage to win over Urmila last night?" Mary asked, appearing beside her at some point.

"Don't talk nonsense, I just took her to practice her skills," Ron explained earnestly.

Mary gave him a disdainful look. "Everyone in the crew knows what's going on. They're not blind."

"Is it that obvious?" Ron shrugged indifferently.

So what if they know? As an investor, isn't sleeping with female celebrities a normal business practice?

Besides, he and Urmila were in love, so there was no insider trading involved.

“It’s Lena and my turn tonight, so you’re not allowed to slack off,” Mary warned him.

“Alright, alright,” Ron waved his hand, “get ready for Jenga.”

He's always busy wherever he goes; the women around him who've used his products all say they're great.

He chatted and laughed with Mary and the others, which made Urmila, who was secretly watching from not far away, a little jealous.

Ron Baba is so attractive to women.

According to her own observation, the second and third female leads in the crew were secretly in love with him.

Fortunately, Ron didn't like dark-skinned Indian girls, which relieved Urmira of a lot of pressure.

To be honest, Mary and Lena never minded Ron seeing other women.

Even more so, they helped devise strategies and provide cover during the conquest of Urmila.

This is utterly unbelievable for a woman from the Western civilized world.

Ron was too lazy to think about it. In a place like India, it wasn't surprising that anything extraordinary happened. His threshold had already been raised.

He stopped worrying about the crew's trivial matters. After Mary offered a few words of comfort, Ron hurriedly left again.

He hasn't had a proper talk with his uncles in the Su family yet.

He's been back for several days now. If he weren't busy with the film crew, they would have already sat down together to discuss how to buy the land.

Ron first went to his third uncle's house, which was in the next village. He was both a landlord and an official in the village.

In rural India, high-caste individuals typically hold multiple roles. They are the masters, landowners, village leaders, and also grassroots officials at the official level.

Brahmins control almost all public sector civil service positions, a situation particularly pronounced in underdeveloped rural areas.

But the situation is changing. In the early 90s, Singh, the leader of the Congress Party government, decided to reserve 27% of government positions for lower castes.

This means taking one-third of the civil service quota held by the higher castes and allocating it specifically to the Shudras and Dalits.

This decision met with fierce and tenacious resistance, and riots broke out in various states.

The daily riots on the streets of New Delhi, with high-caste students protesting, are being broadcast to a national audience on television.

Because of this move by the Congress Party, many high-caste members within the party have switched their allegiance to the BJP.

A split was inevitable, and Singh's coalition government began to crumble.

The newspaper editorials also subtly attributed last year's Indo-Muslim conflict to Singh's policy.

In large cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, more and more lower castes are entering the public sector, but they are finding it difficult to penetrate rural areas.

Because the caste system remains deeply entrenched here, any breakthrough would require the state government to enforce it.

Obviously, the Uttar Pradesh wouldn't be so crazy; Ron's three Bernilaffs would still be the heads of two villages under his jurisdiction.

When he arrived at the other party's office, Nirav was berating his two subordinates.

Ron listened for a while before he understood what had happened: the two men had lost the village's grain ration book and the public property register.

This is a welfare measure by the Indian government, which allocates a batch of free food specifically for the poor.

The poor in the village could register by presenting their birth certificates and then receive free food rations from the village committee.

There are also public assets allocated by the city hall, such as tractors, water buffalo, fertilizer, seeds, and so on.

They were all registered, but now these things are nowhere to be found, and there's no way to verify them.

"You idiots can't even keep two pieces of paper safe! What's going on?" Nilav yelled.

"They were eaten by the village sheep," the two said hesitantly.

Ron almost burst out laughing. "The dog ate my summer homework," a reason that could be used here?
Nilav clearly didn't believe it either; he knew all too well the character of his men.

Those public assets must have been secretly sold on the black market by them.

Fearing a police investigation, the two had to come up with this flimsy excuse.

Nirav did not punish them, but only scolded them a few times before letting them leave.

"There are only one or two hundred kilograms of public grain in the granary, and they can't sell it for much money."

"What?" Ron was stunned.

“The other ten tons all went through me; I always have to give my subordinates some benefits,” Nirav explained.

Ten tons? Flowing out?

So it turns out that the one who really sold off public property was you, Uncle!
“There’s something hard to explain to the villagers. I charged them 400 rupees each, but now I can’t produce any food,” Nirav said, sounding troubled.

Ron was stunned; he had finally figured it out.

The entire Sue family are scoundrels.

(End of this chapter)