Our "Indian farmhouse" is a no-go...we just heard that despite our strict wish to ONLY view houses within our budget this one exceeds it by far, and the owner is not willing to go down in price. Right now I could kill the real estate agent, because it means we lost a precious week of house-hunting as we were waiting for the negotiations.
It also became very clear that in India they simply try, no matter what you say.

But that had become clear to me anyway, over the past 2 weeks. Here, everything is about negotiating and doing business. If you don't try, you will most certainly NOT get what you want...if you DO try, who knows.
Taxidrivers do that by asking way too much for the ride. Shopkeepers try to lure you inside to show their merchandise. Waiters can't wait to wait on you and snatch your glass away from you as soon as you finished the last drop...and sometimes even before that, so they can sell you another glass. And even the manager of the beautyshop (where I went on The First Monday T went To Work) actually managed to sell me lots of treatments I didn't ask for...but it did teach me how they do it!

I went for a manicure and pedicure, and sitting there (with someone at my hands and another one at my feet) was inspected by the manager. "Mhhh...you have very dry hair. Shall I give you a scalp massage with oil?" Granted, my hair DID suffer from sun and chlorine and seeing the beautiful shiney Indian hair made me wonder if I could look like that after a scalp massage, so I agreed. But it didn't stop there. "Oh...your muscles are so tight. Maybe I should massage your shoulders as well!". Ok...yes, we had some stressy times and yes, my neck does feel stiff. So ok, a little shouldermassage couldn't hurt. But it didn't stop there either! "Oh, I see now that you have a lot of dead skincells on your face. That makes you look old. You know what, I will give you a facial, ok?" Well, who wants to look old?
In the end I spend 3 hours in a chair, had approximately 20 different things smeared on, rubbed on, peeled off en massaged onto my face, was dying to go to the ladies' room and spent the monthly salary of an Indian waiter on the treatment (at least, that is what I am estimating). It was an experience, but I do not go anywhere near the salon again!

Still, I can't help but like the Indian people. After all, who can blame them for trying? And as soon as I have found the proper response to ward off any business I don't want, I'll try a manicure again. ONLY a manicure....!