My sister was a “bargain queen”. With her enormous argumentative skills, she could get things priced at ₹3 for just three annas even in 1950. She felt she could not thrive otherwise in a city like Chennai.
For the past 50 years, not even a single day of mine had passed without bargaining for something or the other. My head starts swirling when I think of bargaining. With great difficulties, I make it a point not to let the seller fall into a comfort zone of tricking me. In spite of my urgency, I have to take extra efforts to make him spend more time and energy in showing more and more items so that he may be forced to offer some discount. The traders don’t fall behind. They are aware of the ruthless customers and fix a price at a much higher level giving sufficient room for negotiation.
The ego of the customer does not allow him to digest the fact that someone else got a better bargain, even if it is just ₹2. It is this comparison that leads to a chain of bargaining events spreading to all the products.
Education, cab hire, hotels, textiles, jewels, everywhere there is bargain. The same bargain takes fresh avatars of “deal” in cars and real estate; “negotiations” in business circles; “talks” by trade unions; freebies during elections; “discount sales” and so on.
All puranas and mythologies abound in such bargains won in the form of boons in exchange for penance for years. But these cannot be quoted as contributory factors for Indians being branded as cheap bargainers. Bargaining is a global phenomenon to be marked as a human trait in general irrespective of religion, caste, creed and community.
Bargain starts right at home, whether it relates to offering candy as a compromise or promising a gift of mobile/laptop to the children for top performance in Board examinations. Well known is the bargain with flower, vegetable and fruit vendors on the roadside even if one knows full well that they are earning their livelihood. Not to talk of daily tussles with auto drivers in Chennai.
Even great scholars who preach about Nishkamya Karma (duty without expecting rewards) never fail to market their commercial products, calendars or pilgrimage tours during lecture hours. Spiritual leaders undertake the same thing under the guise of personality development of business managers.
vathsalaj@yahoo.com
Published - October 29, 2023 02:43 am IST
