The crowd at the gold shop in Thiruvananthapuram's East Fort resembles the evening crush of vegetable buyers at Chalai, the local mandi. It isn't wedding season, it isn't even low season - at Rs 20, 000 for 10 gm, nothing is cheap - but that doesn't deter eager hands from sorting through endless trays of rings, lockets, earrings, necklaces and bangles. So thick is the crush that it takes the hapless salesman half an hour to find us what we want. "How much for this?" asks my aunt holding up the pretty, delicate little choker. The young salesman, in his sing-song Thrissur accent, weighs the gold and pronounces: "Only Rs 30, 000". "Thirty?" my aunt pretends horror, palm cupping her chin in outrage. "Anyaya vela (unfair price), " she complains with a moue and scrapes her chair back as if to leave. "But for you there is a discount, chechi, " wheedles the young man in the uniform pink shirt all sales staff sport. "Wait, I will ask my manager. " He returns after an interminable wait.