A Money Savvy Model

We city dwellers always think that we are the smartest bunch around, only to be humbled by simple folks around us time and again.

Some time back I visited the Nallamala forest near the Srisailam temple. It is a very sparsely populated area and most of the folks living are farmers and some tribals. Education levels are very poor, and for a city-bred guy like me it is difficult to understand the folksy wisdom passed down from one generation to another in our villages.

While coming back we stopped in a village haat to buy some locally grown fruits, whose taste is 1000 times better than anything you get in a supermarket.

An elderly tribal woman in all her finery was selling some mangoes, and the price she quoted for the heap that I liked was 20 Rs. I had a 50 Rs note and she had only 10 Rs with her. So I offered her a simple solution that I will give her another 10 Rs if she will let me take her picture. She smiled and readily posed, I am sure she is used to moonlighting as a model as there was no hesitation in her eyes to pose for my phone. Now before my dear reader, you brand me as an exploiter of the poor tribal women in name of clicking her picture please read the complete post.

The Money Savvy Tribal Lady With All Her Jewellery

Not satisfied with the one picture I took, I clicked another one to pick the best of two for my blog. The lady immediately reminded me that the deal was for 10 Rs per picture and since I have clicked 2 pictures I now owned her 20 Rs, I was all smiles on her logic and clicked another one so that she can keep the full fifty with her. (20 for Mangoes and 30 for 3 pics) Now only if some of our models in big cities were this money savvy, we would not be reading about them hitting the drugs induced downfall when the work starts diminishing.

As for the mangoes, well they were delicious with a little bit of tangy taste minus any extra sweetness that some of the varieties you get in Hyderabad. T

The picture also came out OK, considering it was taken from a cell phone.

Thanks for reading.