The inherent goodness and generosity of those who have “not much” is often times seen at the farmers market. Today while out for a walk we noticed the farmers market was on… After having purchased two heads of cauliflower for a princely sum of 60 bucks we were moving towards the vendor with nice looking oranges. On the way I noticed a sad looking guy sitting with a lot of greens. Walking past his patch I wondered “why the long face”? I saw nice looking scallions and walked back and picked up two bunches (will make Uncle Roger approved egg fried rice this weekend when the cook doesn’t turn up). He said “3 for 20” so I picked up one more and proceeded to pay him. At this point he says “take one more”, I said it’s ok I’m fine with the price. He said “no no it’s ok aap ek aur lelo”…
It did not make sense to me… still does not. Was it the fact that I walked back, was it because I did not bargain, was it just that he wanted to finish off his produce before it went bad, was it the rustic generosity that we all experience so often in the villages… I don’t know whatever it was but I do hope he is able to finish selling all his greens and go back happier. I did not take one more bunch because frankly too much of scallions is also not a great idea with egg fried rice but his gesture did amuse and intrigue me.
His name is Dasari Narsimhulu and his number is 8096383231 (thanks to UPI we now have data that we never had back in the days of cash… of course they also have our data)… just in case you are feeling as generous as Dasari was today or you feel like saying hello… all of us could use a random act of kindness every now and then… specially when it happens to come from unexpected quarters and absolute strangers.