Hazel Manuel's Blog: Hazel Manuel's Blog - Posts Tagged "travel"
Bribery? Seriously?
My first novel Kanyakumari sees backpacker Rachel with Pravi, an Indian musician she's only just met, attempting to buy train tickets to Mumbai, with a bribe... Here's how the tale begins:
‘Bribery? Seriously?’ Rachel added it to the list of experiences she had accumulated in her thirty-one years. It made her smile because it made her feel daring, standing there with Pravi in the confined space of the ticket office, the slow and creaking overhead fan trying half-heartedly to stir the fetid air.
Pravi cocked an eyebrow. ‘The problem is Rachel since we’ve left buying the tickets until now, there won’t be enough places left.’
Such is the price for spontaneity thought Rachel as she wiped an irritating trickle of sweat from the side of her face with the back of her hand.
‘Rachel, do not concern yourself with this,’ Pravi whispered to her. She felt his hot breath, his lips almost touching her ear. ‘We will get our tickets. This is the way of it in India.’
‘Bribery? Seriously?’ Rachel added it to the list of experiences she had accumulated in her thirty-one years. It made her smile because it made her feel daring, standing there with Pravi in the confined space of the ticket office, the slow and creaking overhead fan trying half-heartedly to stir the fetid air.
Pravi cocked an eyebrow. ‘The problem is Rachel since we’ve left buying the tickets until now, there won’t be enough places left.’
Such is the price for spontaneity thought Rachel as she wiped an irritating trickle of sweat from the side of her face with the back of her hand.
‘Rachel, do not concern yourself with this,’ Pravi whispered to her. She felt his hot breath, his lips almost touching her ear. ‘We will get our tickets. This is the way of it in India.’
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