Samir
So, Marlee has some awesome shawl’s that she bought when she was in Dharmasala before she came to meet me in Delhi. Her friend Samir, who is 14, sold them to her at a very good price and she always came to him bearing gifts, particularly in the form of chocolate. So, when we got here I wanted to check them out.
Samir told Marlee he works in the shop and his family owns it - but they are all in Kashmir and he is here by himself.
Today, we went in and Shamir was going to cut me a deal - not a huge one, but to my defense I was buying 10 things so I should’ve gotten a deal. After all, there is no such thing as a fixed price here.
We were all settled when this guy came down and was speaking to Shamir in Kashmiri (I assume). Shamir cut his finger and there was a lot of chaos for a few minutes. The man kind of lingered so Marlee asked how he knew Shamir and his response was “He’s his owner.” So, naturally I got uneasy. Shamir had run out to take care of his finger and we told the guy we needed to leave and that we were paying 800 rupees so we needed 200 back. He asked how many we were buying and we told him and he said no. And he was mad. I said that’s what we worked out.
So, we decided to come back later. He had really started to freak me out. We had brough Samir a Cadbury chocolate and Marlee told the guy she was leaving it for Samir so he shouldn’t eat it. He said he would eat it so we should take it with us.
We left and I was really bothered/upset/insert any synonym here. We decided to come back and Samir was obviously uneasy. He didn’t want to take the chocolate so we put it in his pocket and told him to hide it. He was definitely afraid. So, I decided I’d buy my original items for the price the man wanted so that maybe he’d be easier on Samir. Well, I made a point to say out loud I was only buying because of Samir and as soon as we looked back, the man took the money from Samir.
Again, I left bothered/upset/insert any synonym here. It was like being a part of Slumdog Millionaire and I hated every second of it.
When I come back, I will take Samir candy every single day and do it right in front of that awful man so he knows how awful he is.
