As a part of my crude logic ritual of calling all the contacts listed on the mobile phone book, I called Nico. Nico was my BE classmate and his opinions on aspect of life usually differed substantially from the others. After the exchange of usual unnecessary greetings and stupid gossip, Nico started to tell me about a memorable weekend in Mahabaleshwar. The day being the fools day, I was not all together convinced about the authenticity of the incident. But nevertheless, it was a good story to hear and I thought it would not be a bad blog either.
The story started with Nico's trip to client company at Satara. He finished his work on Friday and true to his capricious nature went to Mahabaleshwar without any company. He claims that he developed a very good friendship with a strawberry farm owner. (I'm not sure how he did, it though. I was meaning to ask him over phone but, I had already talked over phone for more than three hours then and, wanted the call to end soon. You can also say that I dint wanted to alter the flow of his story). The new friend made him his guest. Nico took shelter at the farm for the weekend. During day time he visited various places. Another solitary incident that he mentioned during latter half our thirty minute call suggested that he kept himself busy at the day time. When he was leaving back for Mumbai the strawberry farm owner gave him twenty boxes of strawberry. Each box contained approximately half kilo of the fruit. The boxes were so perfectly packed that he could not refuse by complaining about not being able to carry them back home. Nico offered money, but the owner kept declining. Finally the owner did accept the money, but that did not even amount to the hospitality he has offered Nico during the weekend.
Nico himself found sitting in train bored to death with a ten kilo of strawberry with him. His train of thought took him to imaginary reaction of his dad that would follow on discovering that his son had brought 10 Kg of fruit. He argued giving away most of the strawberry to his relatives en-rout to his house. Then he dismissed the thought considering the luggage he was carrying. His thought process was interrupted by a fellow passenger who asked him what he was carrying. On the subsequent discovery of the fresh strawberry from Mahabaleshwar in his luggage, the other were wondering if they were for sale. One of the fellow passenger brought the thoughts to lip and much to Nico's and his astonishment, Nico obliged by quoting the price of the strawberry. After much haggling over the prices, as a time killer for Nico and money saver for passenger, Nico sold his first kilo of strawberry for the day. A few other boxes were brought by other passenger of the compartment.
With another hour for the train to complete its journey Nico thought about moving to another compartment and selling remaining fruit. Giving sample to taste he moved from compartment to compartment. A sexagenarian started to inquire about his background. On discovering that Nico was studding in a reputed college (sexagenarian was alumni of the same ) his interest in Nico's act received an exacerbation. Nico gave an situation relevant reply, he said and I quote (try reading it with a nasal voice very peculiar to him and imagine him with excessive shoulder movement while making gestures ) "Whenever I travel to Mahabaleshwar, I ensure that my expenses are covered by the selling these fruits. I even insist my fellow classmate about following it. And to think about it , what is the harm in it. In foreign countries student actually do this stuff." Impressed with his idea, the old man pointed out another advantage of this exerciser. He felt that ego in youth is toned down by this kind of endeavor. The rejection by the passenger who are least interested in buying and sometimes even having to digest insults, from few people who find hawkers irritating contribute to a very different attitude to handle situation. Well just to aid Nico, he brought remaining five kilo of strawberry.
It would be harsh if I concluded the chapter, his conclusion of the incident was very free-spirited, "As I sat down after the trip and removed my mobile to listen to song from my android phone for rest of the journey, rest of the passenger were staring at me with a attitude 'Aare Ye kya Scene Hai !' "
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