I'm a Master in India

Don't look down on Nilav just because he's a small village official; he manages to pocket a considerable amount of benefits.

Just by reselling grain, he can easily make a hundred thousand rupees.

Villagers even have to bribe him to get the free welfare benefits distributed by the government.

He's also a big landlord himself, and growing cash crops like hemp brings in even more income.

You could say that landlords and Brahmins like Nilav live a more comfortable life than many small business owners in Mumbai.

They've never thought about moving to Delhi or Mumbai because their roots are in the countryside.

Nilav took Ron to visit his village office, one of the few brick buildings in the village.

The reception area had some plastic chairs and a fan, and the base of the tea urn used for guests constantly leaked milk tea.

On the wall outside the office was a light yellow bulletin board listing the costs of all the public construction projects in the village, including road maintenance, a maternal and child clinic, a newly dug well, and the construction of a community center.

Nilav told Ron that the numbers on it were just filled in arbitrarily.

The villagers are illiterate; this is just for the higher-ups to see.

The real project funds have all been pocketed by the Sur family.

Yes, his elder uncle's family are officials in several other villages. Some projects require cooperation between two villages, such as roads and clinics.

These government allocations have all been divided among the brothers.

Public infrastructure? Anyone who believes in that is a fool.

The entire state of Uttar Pradesh is like this; it's not just their Sur family doing it.

The uncle and nephew had only been talking for a short while when another woman came over crying.

She was a widow in the village whose husband had recently passed away.

To get the Indian government's subsidy for families with elderly, weak, sick, or disabled members, she tried every possible way to bribe the village committee officials.

How did she bribe them? Of course, with her body.

As a result, those guys pulled up their pants and didn't acknowledge anything. The widow had no choice but to come to the Brahmin lord for justice.

Nilav called those few people over and gave them a good scolding, then made them promise in front of the widow that they would complete the procedures tomorrow.

He was a corrupt official with principles; it's only right to take money and get things done.

Sigh, speaking of taking money, Nilav still owes the villagers a lot of grain.

But it doesn't matter; he plans to give some of the coarse feed meant for the cows to the villagers.

It's all grain, and it won't kill anyone, so he can't be accused of breaking his promise.

Other Brahmin landlords aren't as kind as him; those people just took it without any compensation, not caring about the villagers' lives at all.

Compared to that mess, the Sur family's reputation is actually quite good!

After quickly dealing with two disputes in the village, Nilav drove Ron and the others to the city.

His family had a Tata car that looked barely drivable.

Including Anil, Ron had three bodyguards, and they were all squeezed into the back seat.

Nilav watched, greatly amused, and told Ron there was no need for such precautions.

No one in the entire city of Varanasi would dare to cause trouble for the Sur family; they were very safe.

"Have you seen the thing Ratan has in his hand?" He made a gesture with his hand indicating a 'gun'.

"I've seen it. The day he picked me up, he was holding a submachine gun and gesturing towards the sky." Ron couldn't help but laugh.

"That thing is very effective," Nilav didn't laugh though. "Last month, Ratan used it to kill two people."

"What?" The smile on Ron's face froze.

"Those two people dared to whistle lewdly at your cousin; that's Eve-teasing. Ratan took his gun and, in front of everyone on the street, shot them with an entire clip. He did the right thing."

Eve-teasing in India refers to the harassment of women, which includes both verbal and physical acts.

Ron's cousin was a Brahmin, and being whistled at in the market was a great humiliation.

After she came home crying and reported the news, Ratan immediately grabbed his gun and took people to find them.

Those two petty thugs hadn't even left the market; they didn't even have a chance to beg for mercy before Ratan gunned them down in public.

Not only that, but their father, who was working in the fields, was also shot through the head.

Their sisters-in-law, older sisters, and younger sisters were all brutally raped and killed.

Afterward, Ratan symbolically stayed at the police station for three minutes before being bailed out by his elder uncle, Prakash.

A month later, he was still alive and well, and hadn't gotten into any legal trouble.

This kind of thing is common throughout Uttar Pradesh; have you seen it in the news?

"You have to show those untouchables some color; now no one dares to casually look at the women of the Sur family."

Nilav greatly admired Ratan's methods; that's how a Brahmin lord should be.

He talked incessantly all the way there, and when they arrived at his second uncle Aditya's house, he was told that a superior officer had made a临时 inspection that day, and he had rushed out.

So Nilav turned the car around and headed straight for a certain reservoir.

"Do you know where Uncle Aditya is?" Ron asked.

"Of course, at the reservoir; a group of foreigners have wanted to come for a long time."

"Foreigners?"

"That's right. I heard it's an international development fund. They allocated funds to the city of Varanasi to build four large dams to solve the farmers' irrigation problems."

"Is Uncle Aditya in charge of this project?"

"He's one of the key people, so he has to be there."

Nilav was clearly well-informed about this matter; he drove the car directly to the vicinity of the dam, completely disregarding the fact that officials were inspecting there.

When Ron and the others got out of the car, they saw his second uncle Aditya accompanying a group of foreigners, pointing and gesturing at the unfinished dam in the distance.

He saw the two of them, but just gave a look and focused on the task at hand.

"Your Uncle Aditya is going to perform a magic trick." Nilav suddenly looked expectant.

"What?" Ron was confused.

"Just watch, it's coming right up."

Aditya and the group of foreigners in the distance got into the car; they left, but not completely.

Because the car just circled through the sugarcane field and then drove back from another direction.

Aditya got out of the car and again led the foreigners to point and gesture at the same dam.

He was full of passion, as if he were facing some incredible masterpiece, but the expressions on the faces of that group of foreigners were extremely strange.

A few minutes later, they got back into the car and left. Then they circled through another millet field and drove back to the dam from a different direction.

This confusing behavior was repeated about three times, and Ron was completely bewildered.

That group of foreigners finally burst out laughing, the kind of speechless laughter that comes from extreme absurdity.

Nilav also laughed, laughing uncontrollably.

"Aditya promised them four dams, but there's actually only one."

"One?" Ron slowly began to understand.

"Yes, only one. To complete the task, Aditya could only take them to the dam by three different routes, hoping that the group of foreigners would get lost and not recognize that it was the same dam."

This...

This is too damn funny.

Ron himself couldn't hold back anymore.

No wonder that group of foreigners had such absurd expressions on their faces.

They couldn't even feel angry; they were just speechless to the point of laughter.

They felt like their intelligence was being trampled on by the Indians, a truly unbearable sight.

Finally, the leading foreigner said a few words with a serious expression, and then left with his group in a huff.

Aditya looked dejected, with a very unhappy expression on his face.

"It's all your fault, Nilav, and Ron too."

"Huh?" Ron was confused. How did the blame shift to him?

"If you weren't standing here, that group of foreigners definitely wouldn't have recognized that it was the same dam."

Holy cow! This second uncle of his has a very peculiar way of thinking.

Ron didn't even know how to retort; he was speechless.

Then, just like his third uncle Nilav, Ron also started laughing, and couldn't stop.

"Alright, we should go back." Aditya waved his hand and leisurely walked back.

"Is it alright? This matter today." Ron asked curiously.

"There's nothing to worry about," Aditya was fearless. "At most, I'll get a scolding."

India has many bizarre laws. Besides the 'Rent Control Act' which allows inherited tenancy and the 'Labor Law' which prohibits arbitrary dismissal of employees, there is also a law targeting civil servants and officials.

The content comes from Article 311 of the Indian Constitution, which roughly means that dismissing or demoting civil servants requires a series of complex procedures.

Besides the administrative management department, no other institution has the right to interfere with the tenure of officials.

The people in the administrative management department are all officials; will they investigate themselves?

It's obvious, not to mention dismissal, even demotion is impossible.

Therefore, even if Indian officials make mistakes, they are fearless; they know they won't face any punishment.

This is a truly iron rice bowl, as iron as can be, protected by the constitution.

The ultimate dream of most Indians is to become a civil servant. Taking the civil service exam in India is truly a hellish level of difficulty.

The treatment of civil servants goes without saying; Ron's cousin Ratan is a vivid example.

For ordinary families, especially low castes, passing the civil service exam is truly like a sparrow transforming into a phoenix.

Of course, for Brahmins of this era, becoming a civil servant is too easy.

Aditya is both an official and a municipal commissioner, holding multiple positions.

Incidentally, more than half of the state legislators in Uttar Pradesh have murder cases against them.

Murder, contract killing, rape... all serious crimes. Only those who are corrupt are rare good people.

The entire state of Uttar Pradesh is ruled by a group of criminals. The situation here is imaginable, and the story is still long.

On the way back, Aditya voluntarily told Ron and the others about the dam.

That foundation allocated 6 million rupees to build the dam, but Indian officials, well, they all engage in corruption.

Aditya and a few others only kept a remaining 1 million to build a dam just for show; the rest was divided among them.

The matter is that simple, not even considered strange.

"By the way, Ron, I heard you want to get a piece of land in Varanasi?" Aditya asked.

"I opened a factory in Mumbai, and now I want to build a branch factory in Uttar Pradesh."

"Sur Electronics! Have you seen the advertisement on the All India Television?" Nilav, who was driving, boasted.

"Of course I've seen it. Just drive your car properly." Aditya scolded him; he was the second oldest, Nilav's older brother.

His family lived in the city and had bought a television a long time ago, and had seen the Sur Electronics advertisement more than once.

But who knew it was Ron's company? The latter had never informed them.

"But the name is great, absolutely great!" Aditya's aesthetic was the same as everyone else's.

"I want to exchange the land in the village for land in the city." Ron stated his plan.

"You don't need to go through that much trouble, at least not now." Aditya was confident. "We'll go meet a few key people."

He suddenly had an excellent idea, enough to offset the negative impact of the dam.

PS: On the recommendation today, I'm posting more chapters to repay my old readers.