Baal Ke Badle Baal: Check Out This Street Vendor’s Bizarre Barter

With the onset of the pandemic, many people took to the internet to share their findings and creations to engage viewers. These creations kept us sane and going during the lockdown. From creative videos to bizarre challenges, the internet is filled with content of all kinds. Although the pandemic has calmed down a bit, there’s no end to the bizarre videos going up on the internet. We all know the struggle when the internet was full of weird food combos and there seems to be no end to these trends even now. You might be scared at the thought of another weird food combo but fret not! On today’s journey to the weird world, we will be stopping by a weird business model adopted by a street vendor to sell cotton candy.

No matter what, we will always be drawn to pink-hued, bright and melt-in-the-mouth cotton candy on the streets over posh malls. A street vendor is selling ‘budhiya ke baal’ (cotton candy) in exchange for hair and this video is the proof:

In this video uploaded by the YouTube food blogger ‘Foodie Vishal’, a street vendor is seen exchanging hair for cotton candy. The vendor decides on the quantity of cotton candy based on the quantity of hair one has to give him. Upon being asked the purpose behind this barter, the vendor reveals that he sells one kilogram of hair for rupees 3000. He sells the hair to people who then convert them into wigs and sell them in the market. The vendor claims that he has been doing business using this barter system for 4-5 years now. The video was uploaded on the YouTube channel of the blogger and has garnered about 58k views and 2.5k likes so far.

“Earlier, people used the barter system to purchase things in 18th century. But this barter system is still running to date... ‘Baal ke badle baal’ is a unique way of selling street food in India.”

“Hmare yha pr baalon se brtn bhi milte h Or jeera bhi”

“Jawan ke bal lete hain gudiya ke bal dete hai”

Are you intrigued by this vendor’s unique barter system? Do let us know.