3 Bills and Masala Dosa

Last weekend at the Indian grocery store, there was a rather hilarious sight.

I purchased my stuff and stood in the line.

A lady two places ahead of me was at the counter, and I saw that her bill was $20.19

Not sure why I registered that in my brain.

But next in line was a grumpy old gentleman. He had a cap over his white sloppy hair. He wore spectacles. He looked like a Delhi-ite.

He began arguing with the cashier, a Gujarati lady, about the price of the tomatoes. Apparently he wanted it to be $2.7 and not $2.5.

Oh ok!

He haggled over a few more items, until finally he agreed to pay the bill.

The cash display showed it to be $20.20

By this time there was this wierd feeling in my head, as the lady began scanning my items.

I didnt want to jump the gun but I waited and watched.

And yes, I didnt haggle like the gentleman in front of me.

With bated breath I watched...and lo! My bill was $20.21.

I paused the song on my ipod and smiled as I took out my card to pay.

"Did you see that? The last 3 bills were all one after another. What a coincidence right?", I asked the Gujarati girl in Hindi.

She gave me a stare that is normally associated with angry grandmothers.

"Sign here sir", she bluntly tossed the receipt and a pen.

And kept looking at the pen.

I signed it and picked my stuff and went.

I tried to put on a brave face and act honourable, though I was feeling disgusted at her rather acrimoniously dumb response.

I went to a small indian restaurant to eat dosa.

I ordered a masala dosa.

When my dosa arrived, I realised I can plan my dinner too.

I took a take-home box and took out all the aloo sabji from the dosa and packed it for my dinner.

And then ate the masala-less masala dosa with sambar and chutney.

Why do we call it Masala dosa?

Should it not be called Aloo dosa?

All that they do is add aloo sabji inside the dosa.

I finished the dosa.

As I was about to leave, I went to the lady who was taking orders.

"Excuse me! Why do you call these Masala Dosa? You dont add masala right? You only add Aloo sabzi. I think you should call it Potato Dosa", I took a stand hoping to hear something interesting.

"Sir! do u want to order something else sir? If not, thank you sir", she replied in Hindi+English.

"Oh sorry. Thanks", I said and took my things and ran away.

My God! Whatever happened to people's sense of humour?!!