I am a master in India

Chapter 107: City of Corruption
Throughout February, Ron traveled between South Mumbai and the electrical factory, a distance between the two places and the agonizing traffic that exacerbated the commuting costs.

Sometimes, because it was too late and Mumbai was under curfew, he had to spend the night at Mary's apartment in Juhu District.

Since they decided to establish themselves in the Bollywood business, they moved from Colaba to Juhu district, which is closer to Bollywood.

Ron naturally also sent the two modified versions of the water air conditioner to them for product appreciation.

After using it twice, Lena complained that her skin was always wet and uncomfortable when she woke up the next day.

Ron immediately took note: it moisturizes the skin and is good for health.

Can this be considered a disadvantage? It is obviously an advantage. Whether it is good or not depends on how you interpret it.

Foreigners are just pretentious. They are used to air-conditioning, so of course they look down on his cheap air-conditioning.

However, Mary raised a pertinent point, which is that the cooling effect will decrease if the water in the sink is left for a long time or exposed to the sun.

Well, the problem can be solved by using running water or a water circulation system.

If the cost goes up, just put it in high-end products. In short, it's not a big problem.

Ashish will take care of the specific design plan, and Ron will only be responsible for asking questions.

Because of the water air conditioning issue, he hasn't paid much attention to the tourism business recently. Now Nia helps take care of everything.

Ron didn't even care about the Shiv Sena making a fuss outside.

He only occasionally heard Kavya and the others mention that the Mumbai government now followed the Shiv Sena's lead, and the latter even took over the outsourcing company for municipal services.

This is a very lucrative business. Mumbai's municipal services are in name only, but a large amount of money is allocated every year. Where this money eventually goes is easy to understand.

Of course, the Shiv Sena is not without troubles. The Supreme Court in Mumbai is investigating the Shiv Sena's illegal activities during the riots.

But Ron had little confidence in India's judicial system. Based on its past performance, it would be a miracle if the case could be closed within 20 years.

The electrical factory business absorbed all his attention until Khad Khan called him.

The travel agency matter has been resolved, and now he needs to meet with an official.

Ron arrived at the Bombay Administrative Services Bureau as scheduled and met the official named Kamat in the office on the second floor.

When he walked in, the office was bustling with activity: an auction was underway, with Kamat and the businessman who had promised to donate to him for his campaign being haggled over the amount.

"You said 3.75, and you're still 1.25 short."

"No, no, we agreed on three lakhs!" a man said hurriedly.

"We agreed on no less than five lacs!" Kamat refused to give in.

One lac is one hundred thousand rupees, which is the popular term in India.

They quarreled as if no one was around, not caring at all that Ron had been watching the show for several minutes.

Finally, the man seemed to compromise. He took out a white plastic shopping bag, threw it on the Formica desk in front of Kamat, and then left without looking back.

Kamat gave a triumphant smile and stuffed the shopping bag into the drawer under his desk.

"Did Khaderbhai send you here?" he asked.

"Yes, about the travel agency." Ron handed over his business card.

"Oh! Travel agency? Good business." Kamat looked at the business card in his hand.

Ron nodded perfunctorily. It was nothing good. He had been starving for the past two months.

"Let's talk straight. As usual, five lacs!" Kamat gestured with his fingers. "From now on, any passport and visa applications your travel agency may make will be handled with my blessing."

"Okay." Ron didn't waste any words and put a paper bag on his desk.

"As expected of someone introduced by Khaderbai, he is efficient in doing things!" Kamat smiled happily.

"It's settled then." Ron prepared to leave.

"Wait, are you interested in being a municipal council member?" Kamat's shrewd eyes were full of temptation.

"What?" Ron was confused.

"For only 40 lacs, I'll see to it that you join the city council. It has so many advantages. You won't have to worry about approvals, quotas, and the like. Since you're a Brahmin, an untouchable will never get a chance at such a good thing."

Ron was stunned. What the hell is the difference between this and selling official positions?
"Mr. Kamat, which party are you from?" Ron asked cautiously.

"BJP, we are cooperating with the BJP, which includes the Shiv Sena," Kamath introduced with a hint of pride.

The Shiv Sena is the hottest topic in Mumbai politics, and everyone wants to be associated with it because it often means privileges.

But Ron lost interest instantly. The Bahasa Samajwadi Party was just a local political party in Mumbai with a very low presence and was useless.

"I need to think about it." Ron smiled politely and left the office.

400 lakh rupees, his entire current net worth is not that much. This is still a little-known niche party, and politicians accepting bribes is really fucking shady.

Although the travel agency business has officially been approved, it will not be so quick to actually open its doors to receive customers.

First, Ron needed to rent an office in the Persian Gulf to accommodate the workers. The office should preferably be located in a popular city, such as Dubai.

Secondly, he also needs to advertise in Mumbai so that potential customers, that is, people who want to work abroad, will come to him.

Of course, Khad Khan would refer many people here, which was why he asked Ron to open a travel agency. But no one would complain about too much business, and Ron wanted to fully utilize the slum resources at his disposal. Whenever Farouk, Taj Ali's eldest son, returned from working abroad, he would be surrounded by a crowd of young people who all wanted to get out.

The situation is similar in the fishing village near the pier. Each of these two slums has tens of thousands of people, which is a huge treasure trove of wealth for Ron.

He talked to Farouk and learned that many people who left the slums were working illegally, that is, they went to the Persian Gulf countries by smuggling.

It's understandable, considering how they could possibly obtain a visa or passport. Farouk complained to him more than once, "We've run ourselves ragged, talked our mouths dry, and still nothing works."

Anyone who has dealt with India's bureaucracy is familiar with the concept of "running around in circles": you have to run from one office to another, carrying your application, 30 or 50 times, with no certainty of outcome.

This is the efficiency of ordinary people seeking help from government agencies. After all, they have no money and no connections.

Ron used Khadhan's connections and spent another 50 rupees. It took only five minutes, and he would be able to handle visas for thousands of people without their presence.

This is Mumbai, the city of corruption.

Those who work illegally, like Farooq, usually only do the dirtiest and most tiring jobs, such as cleaning toilets, sweeping roads, and unloading goods in warehouses, earning around 3,000 rupees a month.

But with a visa, things are different. They can work as taxi drivers in Dubai and earn a minimum of 6,000 rupees a month.

This is a huge gap. If I can get a visa, I would spend some money on it.

See, this is the whole point of Ron opening a travel agency.

He had already tipped off Tej Ali and was just waiting for the office in Dubai to be rented before opening for business.

With such a formal channel for going abroad, I believe Taji Ali would be happy to introduce it, and Ron would have to give him some kickbacks at that time.

Friendship is friendship, business is business, and Ron has always been able to balance the relationship between them.

He had originally planned to go to Dubai in person, but because of the electrical appliance factory business, he couldn't leave.

Fortunately, Hadehan has connections in Dubai, so Ron only needs to send a few employees over to keep up appearances.

If everything goes well, the travel agency's business will be back on track around April.

In February and March, Ron's focus was on the electrical appliance factory.

"Ron, are you planning to expand the factory workshop?" Anand came running over happily.

"Not for now. The rainy season is still several months away, and there's enough space right now."

Well, that was an excuse, of course. The main reason was that Ron was broke. He had to save some money for advertising later, so the expansion could be left to him.

However, the original workshop of the textile factory was indeed too shabby. Not only was the floor full of potholes, but some of the ceilings even had big holes in them.

Now it all depends on a layer of tarpaulin to patch it up, but whether it can withstand the rainy season is another matter.

Water air conditioners are electrical appliances after all, so the production environment still needs to be taken seriously.

“Does the warehouse need to be expanded? During the rainy season, there might be so many things that there’s no place to store them,” Anand asked again.

"What the hell are you planning?" Ron couldn't help but look him up and down. Anand usually didn't care about these things. If he had the time, he would have gone to find that fat woman long ago.

"Ron, if the electrical appliance factory needs to expand, we can create a new slum!" Anand said excitedly.

"What do you mean?"

"Legal ghetto, just like where the Twin Towers were!"

"Oh!" Ron's eyes widened. "You mean..."

"That's right! You can apply to the city hall for expansion, and then they will allocate a piece of wasteland next to the electrical appliance factory to you. You can expand for as many years as you want, five years, ten years... forever!" Anand shouted tremblingly.

"So you're moving here?" Ron suddenly realized.

"Why not? This is a legal slum. There's a school nearby. We don't have to worry about people from the city hall coming to demolish it."

Ron had never lived in a slum, but Anand knew all too well how difficult it was. There was no electricity, not even running water; the slum's daily water supply depended entirely on trucks from outside.

Most of the water is monopolized by gangs, who have to pay to get water. Even so, women have to queue up to get water.

Thirty people were assigned to a group, each with two buckets, and the water was conserved for the whole family. There was a lot of knowledge involved in how often to bathe and how to poop.

It is also difficult to go to the toilet in the slums. There are no special public toilets there, so men and children can just go to the beach.

Women, however, had to get up early in the morning and walk through the wasteland, cups of water in hand, searching for a small open space where they could squat down and relieve themselves.

This is really a loss of dignity for women who are menstruating.

But legal slums are different. They can build their own public toilets and even have water and electricity.

A place that is completely their own, with no worries of demolition, water, electricity, etc. For Anand and his family, the temptation is no less than buying a house in Mumbai, free of charge.

Ron couldn't look directly into Anand's warm and expectant eyes. In the distance, Vinod and the others were distracted from their work and pricked up their ears.

"I'll go to the Administrative Bureau again." He finally gave in.

Anand, Vinod and the others cheered and shouted, and some of them threw away the things in their hands and swayed their hips in the open space.

Even without music, they danced happily.

PS: There is no more, really not a drop left.

(End of this chapter)