A Really Big Blog!

On my first trip to India I stayed right across from the gateway of India. This is a tourist area, especially popular for the locals, and some international travelers.  From my hotel window, I could see street vendors with these really big balloons. They were probably 6 feet in length. Later that day I decided to take a stroll around that area. No sooner had I stepped across to that side of the street, that I was approached by a balloon vendor.  “I wanted one of those balloons didn’t I”?  And he would sell me six of them for only 100 Rupees which was about a dollar.  “That’s a bargain” I thought and I’m sure my kids would really love having those giant balloons. So I handed over my hundred rupees and he gave me a bag of balloons. I took two steps at most, and another balloon vendor comes up to me and says “you know those aren’t the really big balloons don’t you”?  Right away, I knew I had been tricked.

Thinking back, the original vendor did not say they were the really big balloons, he just said they were balloons.  So I graciously told the new vendor “no thanks” and went on my way. I was approached by several additional vendors until I took the balloons and stashes them as far down in my pocket as I could so that nobody knew I had them.  I did some more sightseeing around the area and a short time later found myself back in the balloon sales area. Of course I was approached again by another vendor. I pointed out to him that I had already gone through this and showed him my balloons.

He apologized that I had been sold these small balloons.  He was willing to sell me big balloons for another hundred rupees if I traded in the ones I had. OK, so it seemed like a good idea so I gave him a hundred rupees and he said you can even keep the original balloons. And then he gave me my big balloons. Of course, I took another few steps, and was approached by another balloon vendor, who pointed out that of course those weren’t the really big balloons.  So I realized this could go on all day if I wanted.  I suspect there probably were a dozen sizes before I got to the really big ones.

I was reminded of this recently when I saw some ads on Facebook for toy tractors. In one of the videos, the tractor was picking up a person.  In another, the boy opening it could barely see over the box it came in.  But when I the comments, one of the people who would bought it, said “mine came in a shoebox”.  Apparently, he had not got the really big tractor.

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