Diary of SpanishI was Born in Latin America, My Friends are in Europe and I'm Living In India… My Daily Life… My Friends… My Diary

Today I went to the market. I wanted to buy Melon and so I went to my fruit vendor as usual and stood there looking for fruits. I saw the melon and asked the price. My fruit wala said to me Rs. 20 per Kg.  I was surprised because till last week he was selling the same for Rs 50 per kg. All of sudden it became 20 rupees. First I thought the Indian government has curbed the inflation which is going out of control, but then I saw that everyone was selling melon so I understood why he was selling at a cheaper price… the first thing to keep in mind when you go to the market is to never buy something when only a handful of vendors have it. When the product is with everyone all the fruits and sabji vendors sell at the same price and you get the fresh fruits and vegetables.

So I stood in front of my regular fruit vendor looking at the melon and their sizes and color. It was almost 7-8 minutes that I was looking and wondering that if it would be sweet or not… shall I buy it or not… if he is cheating me or not… I mean, those 20 rupees made me think so much because I didn’t wanted to feel fool when I returned home as most of the time I feel like that, so I was taking my time.

Many customers came and bought the fruits in the meantime, so I guess the vendor got a little annoyed… “why she is not buying anything”… finally he said something to me in Hindi which I could not understand at all but as usual I made a face like “I don’t agree with you”… so he looked at me and then he took one melon and just cut it in half and gave it to me and said something in Hindi which again I could not understand but I guess he was saying something like “try it”… so I simply took one piece from it and ate it… and it was sweet… so all the women next to me started asking me if it was sweet…ha ha ha.

So now when the vendor had cut one of his melon for me, it was my moral responsibility to convince everyone to buy his products so I said… “meetha hai”… in Hindi… I guess everyone got it so everyone bought… and when everyone finished I was still standing there… looking at the melon and thinking “if I choose this one, would it be sweet or not”… finally after much of the thoughtful decision I took two melons and the vendor also got a little happy.

I also felt that I made a good bargain… without knowing Hindi or making anyone realize that I don’t know Hindi.