How as a solo traveller I was assaulted by my homestay host in Laida village, Himachal Pradesh
Laida is a small remote village in Tirthan Valley, about 12 kms from the town of Banjar.
The homestay in question is Laida Holiday Home, run by Mr.Rittam Thakur.
This is a documentation of events happened a day prior to this writing.
As part of my month-long stay for June 2021, the owner/host of the property, Rittam Thakur, had given me access to his semi-automatic washing machine for laundry, which I was using once a week.
On the morning of 20th, when I was about to finish my laundry, he came to me out of the blue and began a 5 minute rant on how I was using the machine for two hours straight, how that would warm up and destroy his machine, how my machine usage would cost him 10000–12000 Rupees in electricity bills for a month and what’s the point of hosting me if that’s the case etc.
I listened silently to the whole thing, went back and showed him on my phone the power consumption of his washing machine from the website: around less than 20 rupees for the two hours, and if I use it 5 times the whole month, 100 rupees. He goes ‘Tu mujhse argument mat kar, chup-chap jaake apna kaam karle’ (don’t argue with me, shut your mouth and go do your work silently). I say that’s not the way to talk to someone, much less a customer. He says if I want to checkout, checkout.
I got my things in order and informed his wife on the evening of 20th that I will be checking out the next morning, so will be settling the bill and everything. He had gone to sleep by then. On the morning of 21st, he comes to my room, says ‘Tu khud ko bada smart samajhta hein, utna smart hein ni tu’ (you think of yourself as a wise guy, but you ain’t nothing) and I don’t say nothing much in return. I’m aware of the fact that I’m a solo traveler, and I’m the only guest in his property, so the primary concern is to get out of the place safe and sound.
Over the procedure of settling the bill through Google Pay, he showers a few other insults at me. And then when the bill’s paid, he says, ‘idhar aa baith’ (come sit here) at a chair in the room adjacent to mine, which was empty. I say I don’t want to sit, I want to stand outside. He says it again, and very much in a tone that’s more verbally threatening. I get in the room, and he puts his hands on my shoulder and slightly pushes me into the chair and closes the door. Then he goes on with a few more verbal abuses, during which I smile a bit for some reason. He goes ‘hass rha hein tu?’ (Are you laughing?) and gets up, and grabs my face by the jaw. I say ‘haat mat lagao please’ (please don’t touch my body). He releases his grip, and sits back.
I’m terrified at this point because I’m all by myself in a remote village in Himachal, and in a property that’s at the very edge of the village beyond which there’s only jungle. This guy can make me disappear without a trace and nobody would know. The only thought in my mind is to get the heck out of there alive.
I sat back in chair and listened to him like a good boy, swallowing my pride. He sits back and begins to explain how I had behaved so badly there. I used to go on hikes by myself, whenever my work schedule permits me. And I used to explore the nearby hills and villages. He says I should have been in more control, shouldn’t have wandered that much. That he used to get calls from villagers all around saying ‘apna guest ko control mein rakh le’, that in a village such as this, I should have thought of the host, lived according to the host’s wishes.
He said me wearing a lungi in my room was not appropriate, as a lungi is something that’s considered to be scared or something by the villagers(as a Keralite, we’re proud of our lungis). I had never worn my lungi outside the property.
He talks about how it was a big mistake to take me in his property, how he always treats his guests so well, how in all his 10 years of hospitality experience he has never seen someone like me. That if I had behaved well, if I had spend more time with him, I could have drank more liquor by now than what I was paying him for the entire month’s stay. And then he advises me to take the host’s wishes into account in my further travels, just a free advice from him to me.
I listen to all this, and at the end of it, he’s all very friendly again, gives me breakfast, and sends me on my way. He had outstanding queries for stays, and he says he’d be getting better paying customers by the end of the day.
