Putting things in perspective

It was a quiet mid-morning when I heard an urgent voice at the gate. “Akka, do you want spices?“ a young woman and an old man were beckoning me. My first instinct was to send them away but the sight of several cloth bags, neatly bundled and held firmly by the duo made me pause.

“We have pepper, mustard, nutmeg and jeera. Because of Covid-19, the business has been dull. Help us and buy from us,” the man urged. I had been feeling bad for all the small-time farmers and business folk hit by the pandemic. I was also buoyed by the thought of all the plastic packaging I would be avoiding by buying these spices wholesale and I ventured to take a look at the goods on offer.

The turmeric looked fresh and the pepper smelled authentic. The couple had by then sat down and spread their ware. There was no weighing scale and when queried, the woman said they were selling by measure. I did not ask for the price as I had no intentions of haggling and I knew approximately how much the items would cost. I asked for a measure of this and a measure of that and then the coercion started. “It’s not auspicious to buy just one measure of turmeric, buy two. This is all organic, take more of this.”

My protestations that I did not need that much were being ignored and more items were thrust on me. I grew upset and wanted to close the transaction. “You calculate the amount and pay us,” the man said. When asked for the unit price, the lady fished out a dog-eared sheet of paper on which the prices were mentioned. I stared aghast at the grossly inflated price and told them that they were cheating me. They told me about the difficulties they were facing and asked me to pay whatever I felt was appropriate. The price I offered was unsatisfactory to them and eventually, I paid up an amount that was at least thrice the market price. “You are upset Akka,” the duo remarked and I replied angrily - “Yes and I don’t want to buy from you again.”

The exchange played in my mind for a while and I was feeling bad at being taken in by people who I thought were innocent. It was then that I recalled a similar incident of cheating that had happened years ago. At a high-end mall, I had bought cane baskets at grossly inflated prices. My loss there was much higher. Now, I started feeling bad that I had raised my voice and had spoken harshly with the spice sellers!