Funny Story #217: Seizing an Opportunity

Here is something funny that happened to me during my hectic housing search in South Delhi...

Online, I had found many apartment listings and I posted my interest to a handful of them.  There must have been a thousand housing agents who called me within hours of my posts.  I made appointments with 3-4 of them over a two day period... barely remembering the names of their companies.   I just needed a few people to meet me, and drive me around to look at apartments in different neighborhoods near my office in Defense Colony.

On the second day of my search, I was set to meet one agent named Varun at 4pm outside a well-known restaurant in the Defense Colony market.  I had arrived 30 minutes early from a previous appointment with a different agent.  I'd not eaten lunch, so I decided to have an afternoon snack across the street.  By the time I'd finished my snack and sweet lime juice, I was running late for my appointment with Varun.  I called him and he told me, it's OK, he'd be 10 minutes late too. So I stood out on the corner outside our meeting place.  I waited some time... And waited some more.

After about 10 minutes, I saw a big man in a tight-fitting, checked shirt walking through the parking lot.  He had neatly combed hair and a wide smile on his face.  He was looking at me as he walked, and I raised my hand in a half-salute.  He returned the salute, and increased his smile.  I walked over to meet him and shook his hand.  He said "Hello, how are you today".  I replied, "I am fine, how are you".  He paused a moment, looking down the small street at a line of shops and boutiques that make this part of Delhi so famous.  He asked me, "Can you give me ten rupees?".  I was surprised, but reached back to my wallet, asking, "Sure... what do you need?".  "I just need it for some purpose," he said as he took my worn 10 rupee note.  He began walking toward one of the shops.  I followed him.  this was curious behavior for a housing agent. But he seemed nice enough, and had 'some purpose' in mind.  I thought maybe he wanted to buy me some local Indian delicacy as an introduction of his foreign client to this exotic part of the world.

I followed him across the street and into the shop.  He walked to the middle of the narrow dry goods store and stared for a while into the refrigerated shelves.  I waited up front, by the clerk.  Some other customers came in and stood between me and my indecisive agent.  The agent reached in and pulled out a very large bottle of water. He opened it and began to drink, with great apparent thirst.   I caught his eye as he tilted his head back to gulp the water; he smiled, raising his eyebrows, and looked quite contented.  More customers came in, and the place got quite crowded.  The agent just stood there, in between gulps and made no motion to move, nor any indication of apology to me for my time.  I began to think, this maybe was not my agent.  It then occurred to me how funny it would be if this big man, with neatly combed hair and checkered shirt, had seen a young American reaching out his hand in greeting across a parking lot, and decided instantly to seize that opportunity for ten rupees and a glass of water.

Just then, my phone began to ring.  I was expecting this.  I answered the phone and heard Varun's voice on the other side: "Hello, I am just now reaching. Where are you?"  My real agent was somewhere out in the parking lot!  The store was too crowded now, so I did not get to congratulate the opportunist on his trick.  But I thought about him all the rest of the day, and how funny it was what he did.