Srinagar, Sept. 30 -- By Farooq Ahmad Khan

An apple grower spends most of a year on a single crop. He tends the orchard through winter and spring, pays for pruning, fertiliser, pesticide, labour, packing material and transport, and stays exposed to weather, disease and a market he cannot predict.

When the fruit lands in the mandi, the man who invested the most in producing it holds the least power over its price.

The custom behind that outcome is old.

Buyers and commission agents signal their bids by hiding their hands under a handkerchief or piece of cloth. Whatever history lies behind the practice, it feels out of place in an age of digital payments and instant messages.

The cloth hardly matters, but what happens under it does.

A ...