Sale!! Hurry up!!

Who doesn't love sale? It makes the things we have been planning to buy, affordable. The red hoardings with 'SALE' written on them in bold and the advertisements that prompt us to rush to the store to not miss the products we love, create an urge and make us overwhelmed. It's a great deal between consumers and capitalists as the consumers get to buy things at lower prices and capitalists get to clear the lot which seem to be not sold anymore at the specific rate (number of products sold/ unit of time) and/or specific price. The motive of a producer to sell a product at discounted price is apparently to bring in new products and earn more profits. No capitalist sells his/her products at discounted price because he/she loves the consumers. Yet, it's a win-win situation.

Here in Jaisalmer, I'm working for improving Student Learning Outcome of the students in government schools. Jaisalmer is as big as Kerala, but has density of population as low as 19 persons/ square kilometer. The clusters allotted to me range from 50 kilometers to 120 kilometers away from Jaisalmer city where I live. There is hardly any public transportation. There are routes in which only a single bus travels to and fro from Jaisalmer. Since I got worn out driving everyday, I started taking the only bus that goes in Bhoo route. As I traveled through that route every alternate day, I would talk to the conductor whenever we had something to talk about. The fare I had to pay to reach my destination was 90 bucks. In one of the conversations I told him that I was working with government schools. The next time I took the bus, the conductor only charged 80 bucks from that day.  It is not the 10 bucks saved that mattered it is his willingness to do something to support me for working for the children here, touched me.

Hanuman circle is the heart of Jaisalmer city where one can have street food. You get to buy pani puri of five flavors that you would drool over, pav bhaji that makes your mouth water, eggs, chicken, noodles, momos and more. Before coming to Jaisalmer, pav bhaji is the last option I'd settle for since I did not love it much. Ever since I started eating pav bhaji here, there was a phase of time in which I craved for pav bhaji almost everyday for dinner. Bhaiyya (brother) who makes pav bhaji knows me and the group I go with, very well. He also asks why nobody accompanied or where all the people I usually go with went, when I go alone. One plate of pav bhaji costs 40 bucks and extra pav costs 10 bucks. Bhaiyya knows that we live here all by ourselves and that we are lazy to make dinner for ourselves at times. Hence he not only gives an extra pav for 10 bucks but also extra bhaji at that price. When neither I nor him has change for banknotes, we postpone the transaction for the next visit. We greet each other even when I go to have something else at that place. The little gesture of his to make our stay in Jaisalmer comfier is what moves me. The money he earns through selling pav bhaji is what that runs his family. Certainly, one needs to have a big heart to discount on the price of something that one makes his/her living on.

In the book 'The Four', Scott Galloway mentioned about the closing down of local little stores and inevitably disappearance of them in the coming decades. Yes, Amazon will go on expanding Amazon Go where you will never have to stand in long queues and pay using cash or card. There will be no more human interaction while you shop and the discounts you get in these stores could be because of the increasing efficiency of logistics or declining cost of production or because of the expiry date approaching soon and not because of the trust earned or mutual understanding between the retailer/producer and consumer. The capitalists will go on giving discounts to get their products sold and not because they want make it affordable for the people. Whatever is the intention, the discounts make the products more affordable for the people. The discounts given based on love, trust and understanding might get obsolete in coming decades just like barter system makes no sense in the contemporary world.

I'm so grateful to the people I mentioned in this articles for making me feel privileged through their little gestures. You truly are heroes to me!