Last weekend, I went to Ooty with my lovely other half. My uncle and his family comprising of a wife and a young, lively daughter also joined us for the trip. It was a good experience to be away from the usual maddening rush of things at our workplaces and homes.

Things have changed a lot in Ooty from the last time I visited there. It has become a bigger tourist attraction than it already was. It has become more crowded. Hotels and Service apartments have mushroomed at an unbelievable rate. There’s an alarming ratio of pathetic food joints to the good ones. But, I guess we can pass all these as a common growth phenomenon across India.

Now coming to the thing that hurt most - The Tibetan market has had a facelift. Good or bad - you decide. The market now stocks everything at a fixed rate. ‘The art of bargaining’, once the key to survival in any town or city in India, has now been rendered useless. The ‘Save Tibet’ Initiative is here. No more haggling over prices. The quoted price is the fixed and final one.

For some of us, bargaining is meant to be fun and to revoke this opportunity of pleasure is a violation of the basic Indian right to bargain. Many shop keepers also enjoy it, as the interaction enlivens their day. But now, even their days have been forced into a droning rut.

I still remember those good old days when my dad use to bargain hard and purchase a shoe, quoted at 900 rupees, for a mere 150 bucks or a lemon for 25 paise less than quoted. It was a pleasure watching him haggling on the price. And his smile after winning his bargaining duel cannot be explained in writing.

Alas, If the fixed price mania grips the whole of Ooty, as it has done on the Tibetan markets, children in Ooty will never understand the true meaning of shopping.

Cheers,
Rosh

P.S> Bargain or No bargain - Shopkeeper always wins. Dad never believed that and that’s why he smiled.