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[Mr. Mailer is talking to Mr Kumar, a local Zamindar near Patna.
He finds out the rates of pay: ten rupees a day for a strong man,
and eight otherwise.]

 'Is that a bit lower than usual?'
  Mr Patel translated, and Mr Kumar replied with such theatrical
fluency of gesture that Mr Patel's help was almost superfluous.
  'You see he is paying not only with money,' Patel said, 'but
with kindness. If a man comes to him to ask for a bag of grain he
is giving him that grain. Mr Kumar is the father of all these
people. When a daughter must be married he will tell some boy who
has no job, "Take this girl and there will be work for you on my
farm. This is my dowry for her. Treat her thankfully."'
  There was a moment of silence. In the guise of scratching his
nose Patel had managed to sneak fresh vitaminised betel into his
mouth and, with a sidelong glance at Mr Kumar, was chewing
surreptitiously behind his hand.
  'Who do the people here vote for?' The question caught him off
guard, and he replied from a corner of the mouth. 'They are voting
for Congress Party.'
  'All of them?'
  'All. Here there are no problems with voting. "I am your
father," Mr. Kumar is telling them. "If you vote for Rajiv Gandhi
you are voting for me." They are one hundred percent thankful for
his fatherliness, and this they do.' - p.22

"If you believe, it is a God. If not, it is a stone.' - Muria
saying. (p.25) [The Muria's are an ancient tribe near Bhilai.]

On the whole Indian drivers are both courteous and considerate,
and if they appear to be taking impossible risks, this is only
because their reflexes are developed to a degree that, however
much a catastrophe seems inevitable, when vehicles hurtle towards
each other with only inches to spare there will almost always be a
hair's breadth escape. - p.44