Day 108: Unfiltered Op Anyone?

So, the other day, as I was walking up to the Nagasandra Metro Station from that tiny path that leads to IKEA, something happened.

There’s a bunch of stores lining up the street on both sides. There’s people with bags of snacks and those pull/push-trolleys with their shop setup and of course alongside all that spicy food are coconut stalls and sugarcane juice stalls.

As I was walking through, a bunch of people were trying to push their product. “Would you like to try some?” “Come, take a packet of this.” And then finally, were these two people who were family, I’d assume, who came up to me and said “come try a glass of our sugarcane juice. It’s great!”

As I walked further, just about 10 yards from that empty sugarcane stall of the duo, I came upon another stall. Anchored to the metro station granite with concrete. I looked up to see, it had four sturdy walls with a board on top that said “sugarcane juice”. And inside was this uniform clad young dude. Feeding canes to the juice churner as customers piled in front. Waiting for him to be done with the earlier patrons.

There they were, a bunch of storeowners, who made exactly what this guy was making - sugarcane juice. They were pushing their product with everything they had and with a smile on their face. Being nice to even the ones who denied their service.

Meanwhile, no offense to the young dude, but he had none of their charm and he wasn’t even trying.

And instead of supporting small businesses customers were piling into an already crowded storefront, with the exact same product 10 yards away. Probably, priced less than this and with more quantity too (I’m guessing - ‘cause small businesses no way too much about incentivising).

Meanwhile, the government - let go of the supporting - could at least have tried not to cut down business? No doubt, there’s other foods and drinks?

Oh and here’s a fact that I know stirs a lot of you the wrong way - a fact I don’t want to intentionally leave out. The duo were locals, and the uniform-clad young dude was a migrant/displaced.