It was after a long year that I finally traveled to my home town. Once home, I gorged on all the home made food while my mother watched me with worried eyes. And soon enough I knew the reason. Like all mothers she was worried that her daughter was not eating well when away from home and needs to take a more nutritious diet. So there were sessions on the importance of almost all those insipid things that are wonderfully nutritious. However, the greatest stress was on “calcium” and how i being a young woman need it the most! So, I returned to Bangalore with a promise to take a glass of milk every morning and night.

Once back, I decided to be an obedient girl and follow my mom’s advice and entered the grocery shop on my way back home from office. I took the half litre milk packet and though the MRP (maximum retail price) read 8 rupees the shopkeeper argued that the freezing costs needs to be added as well and asked for 8.50. I handed him a 10 rupees note and waited for my change. What came to me was a one rupee coin and some wrapped candy. I looked at him and gave him a questioning look (as if my eyes were capable enough of asking him what does this mean!). Amazingly though he read the question in my eyes and replied that he doesn’t have change. I was miffed but came out thinking that it might be really hard for him to get 50 paise coin these days and was actually happy to get a ‘free’ candy!

Keeping my mother’s promise, I went to the bakery the next day as well to get my packet of milk and this time astonishingly my 10 rupee note returned with a milk packet and 1 toffee! I was obviously more miffed than ever, more so because the shopkeeper refused to read my eyes this time and completely ignored the question put up by them. I found it too silly and embarrassing to ask for a rupee explanation amid people sipping their “masala chai”. Avoiding to add any more masala to the tale I came back home. But soon I realized that this phenomenon has really caught on. It is barter revival and no matter where you are and what you buy, candies are the latest currencies (at least as long as they are returned to the customer!)

I was getting increasingly irritated with this daily loss and though it might look small and miserly, I wasn’t really ok with someone acting smart with me and not giving me my hard earned money back! So i decided to give it back to them in their way. I quietly collected the candies for nine consecutive days and then finally went to the shop to buy milk. This time around when it was my turn to pay the money, i gave him a handful of those wrapped candies and he stared at me for a while. Once again my eyes did the talking and this time the shopkeeper understood it and quietly kept them giving me my milk packet!

Note:To the unwarranted, in India, 50 paise has become an insignificant amount and you can not even buy a cadbury’s eclairs with it!