Exact Exchange

 

Once upon a time in a village, there was a young boy called Amrit; a simple, obedient and helpful boy. He loved flying kites and had agreed to take part in a kite flying competition with his friends. So, he wanted to buy a new kite, a big one with brilliant colors and a flamboyant tail. He broke open his piggy bank, put all the coins in his pocket and went out to the market. As he walked, he was thinking of techniques and tricks to win the competition. His engrossed mind was suddenly assaulted by a powerful aroma…..the aroma from Bittu’s sweet shop.

    Bittu was the best Halwai (sweet maker) of their village, the aroma of his sweets spread all over the market; and his fame had spread even farther to the nearby cities from where people come to the village specially to buy his sweets. He was an ambitious man who was happy and proud of his achievement.

     Amrit resisted the temptation to buy and eat the sweets because he did not have extra money. But he decided to stand there for some more time and enjoy at least looking at the sweets. There were trays and trays of cute laddus, fanciful jalebis, voluptuous gulab jamuns and luminous rasgullas. Amrit was watching the sweets and Bittu was watching Amrit. He called out,” Amrit beta, come here…….. your bill is twenty rupees”

“What for uncle? I didn’t eat any of your sweets!”

“Beta, your bill would be much more if you had eaten my sweets, I am charging you for looking at my sweets, just 20 rupees”

“I have to pay for looking! That’s not fair! You are charging me for nothing”

“Arrey beta, you are standing and enjoying the sight and smell of my sweets, right?”

“Yes”

“If there were no sweets, you wouldn’t have stopped here, right?”

“yes”

“Eating and looking are just different ways of consumption. Whether it is taste, sight or smell, they all come from the sweets and the sweets come from my hard work. I am only asking you to pay for my labor, how is it not fair?”

    This got Amrit thinking,” it is not the common practice to pay for simply looking at something, however Bittu uncle’s argument also sounds justified. But if I pay him, I won’t be able to buy the kite.

Should I just quit the competition?

Shall I just run away from here?

Shall I ask Bittu uncle for credit and pay later?”

Dear readers, what do you think Amrit should do?

Let me decode the story for you. Bittu is the personification of our ambitious self, the sweets are the results of our hard work, sight and smell are reputation; and money is any benefit that we expect in return. While it is good to be ambitious, we must be wary of not becoming overly ambitious and turn to exploitation. After all, a good reputation, like the aroma is an intangible but compelling endorsement that will help in long term achievements. That is a reward by itself. 

Amrit is someone who has other goals but gets caught in unwanted issues. The kite flying competition represents our goal/purpose. The sweets and their aroma are metaphors for distraction. Bittu represents all those people out there who are ready to take advantage of our vulnerabilities. The world is not just black and white, there are many many shades of grey in between. That makes it difficult to point out what is right and wrong because everybody comes up with justifications to their actions. What do we do then? The answer is simple, Clarity of thought. There is a saying in Tamil,”விதியை மதியால் வெல்லலாம்" (Vidhiyai madhiyaal vellalaam), meaning, you can overcome even fate with intelligence.

Do you know what Amrit did?

He thought for some time and said,” okay uncle, I will pay”, he put his hand in the pocket and dug some coins. Bittu was thrilled. But Amrit just kept digging and digging. The impatient shopkeeper said, “Arrey pay up already, how long will you keep counting your money”

“But I have already paid you, uncle”

“I didn’t get any money, you were only counting your coins”

“How do you know I have coins?”

“Because I could hear the clinking sound of the coins”

“If I had no coins, you couldn’t have heard the clinking sound, right? For consuming the sight and smell of your sweets, I am paying you by the sound of my money! Is the payment sufficient uncle? Here take some more”

Makes more clinking sound with coins.

“Hope you got the exact change. Bye!”

Amrit rocked! Bittu Shocked!

This is a popular hindi folktale called 'Laalchi Halwai'.