Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Take that, autowallah!

I made a bet with an autowallah today when I went to my Hindi lesson. It went down as follows:

मैं
: ईस्ट ऑफ़ कैलाश।
ऑटोवाला: अस्सी रुपये।
मैं: क्या?! अस्सी बहुत महंगे हैं! मीटर के साथ तीस रुपये हैं!
ऑटोवाला: तीस रुपये? नहीं!
मैं: हाँ! तीस रुपये!
ऑटोवाला: नहीं!
मैं: हाँ!
ऑटोवाला: ठीक है। अगर मीटर तीस रुपये या उससे कम कहता है, मुझे मीटर का मूल्य दीजिये। लेकिन अगर मीटर तीस से ज़्यादा कहता है, मुझे अस्सी दीजिये।
मैं: अच्छा। चलो।

Me: East of Kailash.
Autowallah: 80 rupees.
Me: What?! 80 is very expensive! With the meter it's 30 rupees!
Autowallah: 30 rupees? No!
Me: Yes! 30 rupees!
Autowallah: No!
Me: Yes!
Autowallah: Ok. If the meter says 30 rupees or less, give me the meter price. But if the meter says more than 30, give me 80.
Me: Alright. Let's go.

And when we arrived, what did the meter say? 27 rupees. Put that in your paan leaf and chew it!

1 comment:

  1. haha emily this reads like a lesson from our beginning hindi textbook... looks like you are having tons of fun. take care and miss you in my classes this year :(. two quarters to go!

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