Duped by damn strawberr-man.

It was our first day in Ooty……
We were two guys in a car trying to make the most of a long weekend… The drive was tiring but worth it . The scenes that met our eyes were mind boggling to say the least. The weather was absolutely brilliant. We could sip hot chai in the open at 2pm on a summer afternoon….
We had all the time in the world and nothing else to do than to roam the rugged streets and ogle at the few pretty dames… Dhananjay suggested that we drive up a certain hill which was overlooking the greater part of Ooty…. I initially disregarded the idea as impractical but within an hours time… sheer joblessness drove us to the point of impracticality!!! Yeah baby!!! we did drive up afterall….
The drive up was along an extremely narrow stretch . The road was just about broad enough to permit one car .. One wrong move at the curves and we could well be history… We managed the drive pretty comfortably until we reached the point where the roads got much steeper . One man jumps right into our way.We brake hard to avoid the man. I even jumped out of the car and uttered choicest kannada abuses at him . He seemed rather bewildered at my expressiveness…. He made the most of the opportunity though and thrust a box of strawberries into my face …
“Organic strawberries sir….”
“Nahin chahiye yaar….”
“ No saar… good strawberry… made in India… very sweet… no fertilizer… no chemical… only natural”
“Nahin chahiya yaar…..”
“No sir … u no understnding… red strawberry… red inside also… see….”
And he bites into one amd proudly displays the insides….
“ see I told you sir… its red”
By now… DJ got out of the car , amused by the bald mans antics…
“Ok boss… how much is it???”
“Only 100 Rupess sir…”
“What the f***!!!! ”
“Organic sir… 20 strawberry sir…. Cheap…”
“ CHEAP MY FOOT!!!!! Five bucks an organifc strawberry???”
“no sir 20 strawberries only 100 rupees”
We were considering our options.. we could go on and on … the man would also go on n on.. we would never get anywhere.He was blocking the road.We couldn’t possibly drive any further without buying his strawberris.We couldn’t reverse either because the road was not wide enough to allow us to reverse .So in a way he strategically forced us into buying the strawberries…
We just about kept the strawberries in the car when our man reappears … this time with organic strawberry jam….
Man … another fifteen minutes of haggling and we were sitting in the car eating strawberries with strawberry jam…. All for rupess one hundred and fifty vonley!!!!! The drive to the top from there on was smoth… the scene from up there was absolutely amazing. We sat there for a long time feasting on chips and biscuits and the organic strawberries…
The drive downhill was less eventful.We reached the foothills in about half an hour.Of course this time we were careful enough to speed past the place before Mr. Organic Strawberry caught us again….
Conning is an art. Some people do it with flair while some just force the victim into submission… Getting conned just happens… only that with me it happens all the time… damn!!!!