One 2 ka 4 travelscam

“A hungry stomach, an empty pocket and a broken heart can teach you the best lessons of life.” - Anonymous

Many of you might relate to the above phrase. Well, if not all, at least 1 among the 3.

I learned my first lesson, after getting scammed on my first bike trip.

2 years ago - Chikmagalur Diaries

After the 300 km long road trip, we were so tired, that we crashed in bed without even having dinner. And as a result, our second day began with a rumbling stomach. We thought of filling it with some cookies and coffee, but apparently that didn't work out pretty well.

Gud-Gud vs Dug-Dug

As the time was running out, we hit the road, and started heading to our first destination, Baba Budangiri. The ride through the bends, the scenic view and the weather was just perfect for the start. As we started getting closer to the peak, the Gud-Gud(sounds from an empty stomach) started overpowering the Dug-Dug(sounds from our Royal Enfield).

Photo of One 2 ka 4 #travelscam 1/1 by Arun Pratap Singh — Moments before getting scammed- Me and Dug-Dug

It is said, once you start taking decisions from your mind rather than your heart, you can control almost anything. I could have acted wisely and acted upon it but it felt like these two had stopped responding as the decisions were in total control of the stomach over here. It was playing its own game.

Aur yahan main Pighal Gaya.....

Finally, we stopped after seeing couple of Hand drawn food carts(Thelas). As soon as I got off the bike, the smell of the omelette came and hit the neurons. It felt like he could relate to our story by just looking at our face. With just, the exchanging smiles and hungry emotions, he started making our happy meal. All that he asked after that was, with or without bread.

It was close to noon and now we were standing there, waiting for our bread omelette. I hardly remember, but I guess this was the first time I had ever witnessed the art of making bread omelettes. The rising fire, the breaking eggs, the sprinkling salt and, like almost everything in slo-motion.

The more time he was taking to cook, the more delicious it started getting, and the more hunger started rising through us.

After minutes of wait, it was finally ready. When I grabbed the very first bite, there was a sudden adrenaline rush in the veins and it felt like the blood flow had eventually begun. As far as I can recall of it, the same had happened when I got off a thrilling ride in the amusement park.

In a couple of minutes I could feel the lost energy coming back to me.

Wait, don't get dragged away with this. This isn't a food blog, this is about one of the biggest scams, which it is yet to come, kyunki picture abhi baaki hai mere dost....

The Omelette SCAM

So, after finishing our bread omelette, we washed our hands and while putting the helmets back on, asked about the money to be paid. The guy said, 200 bucks. Trust me, like you, even I thought I might have heard it wrong, and asked him again.

Bhaiya, how much for 2 bread omelettes? - It's 200 rupees bhaiya.

200 bucks, for 2 bread omelettes. Seriously!

Yes. (Followed by a weird look with a long pause)...

Now the situation is, you can argue with someone and negotiate before buying something, but the case over here was different. We just hadn't bought it, but had even started processing it inside the body. So there was no option for arguing at all and all we could do, was to pay for that.

Trust me, this was the most expensive bread omelette I have ever had, that too non-inclusive of GST. At least he could have given us a student discount. :(

PS- A beer costs almost same as that bread omelette dude.

Getting back to the starting phrase, my first lesson came from a hungry stomach, and I guess it literally taught me a lot. Now, the level of trust issues have gone so far that I ask twice about the price before even buying a mere chocolate from a normal store.

The only message I would like to share with you is-