Last week I was roaming around in a new city, the curious me was trying to find new and local places to shop, exciting places to eat which brought me and my mom to a street with endless options for shopping.
The warm, sunny day was about to get more warm as we started our outing. The street was filled with colourful dresses and endless amount of accessories. You name it and they had it. I am not the fan of roadside shopping, but when I travel I do like to get something which reminds me of that place. And so I dragged my mom along with me that day.
Somewhere down that street we stopped outside a shop which was comparatively more crowded than others, where I liked a pair of cotton pants. Every single person was trying to bargain with the owner of the shop, whom I could yet not see.
Slowly, one after the other the customers went away with only one of them buying something, and then I had the shock of that day. I was waving at the pants hanging outside, trying to know it’s price, when a small child, peeped outside and shouted that it was worth 300₹. That small child who could not have been a day older than 10, seemed to be the owner or the temporary owner of that place.
We asked her if there was any elder person who should have been there, or anyone who we could talk to instead of her, but she constantly said only one thing, “I am here to sell, there is no one else except for me and a younger sister of mine.” We wanted to talk to her more, but she did not want to answer. It seemed we were prying on her life, and new customers were pouring in.
So when she asked, “Do you want to buy it or not? My last price is 290₹?” I took out the money, paid her and bought those pants.
I stopped by my mom at her initial trial of bargain and simply paid 300₹. The pants weren’t really unique, not that they were branded or something, may be if we would have haggled we might have convinced someone to sell it for 250, but I just didn’t feel like doing it. I felt for a 10 year old trying to make money on a weekday!
Moushmi Radhanpara 
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