Barry Watson has been many things: teacher, bus driver, financial advisor ... but in a small village in India, he's royalty.
Here's what happened:
Among the Yanadi tribe of Andhra Pradesh, he is known as “King Bazza” and held in such awe that his “subjects” have been known to walk ten paces behind him, and children have feared to approach him.
However, at home in Chepstow, he is an ordinary father-of-four whose children constantly “take the mick”.
Mr Watson was given the title after helping villagers, who once lived on a rubbish tip and had a life expectancy of around 40, to make a new home for themselves – which has been named Barrypuram in his honour.
But he was regarded as special from the moment he arrived by the tribe – who are at the bottom of the caste system and are descended from ratcatchers to the local kings.
“They said there was an ancient prophecy one day a white man would come and build them a village,” he said.
John-Paul Ford Rojas of The Telegraph has the fascinating story: Link
I just don't get what's so 'neato' about this story. Wouldn't a neater story have focussed more on the people who were living on the rubbish tip and what their lives were/are like; rather than on the great white man who saved them? Just sayin...
I disagree that the article at The Telegraph is colonialist in nature (either overtly or by ways of suggestions). In fact, it pokes fun at the man whose own children make fun of because he got made into royalty because he helped other people.
I re-read the article and found no evidence of "the old idea that the white man is required to help those at the 'bottom of the pile'" as you suggested.