The Bargain

Shopping in India has a common theme that is experienced in many parts of the world - the asking price is just the beginning of the discussion. This is true whether buying a shirt in a market or getting a rickshaw (the staple of local tourist transportation). Never accept the initial price.
Some believe that the customer's first offer should be as low as 50% of the asking price. That's can be a bit brutal. There are merchants who will just essentially tell you to go away at that point to see if you are really interested. Others may try a bit of bargaining.
One of the lessons is that there is almost nothing in the markets that some other mercahnt doesn't have. Therefore, don't get to attached to the item you are bargaining for. I have even seeing a customer bargain for two very similar items at stalls side by side. She was playing the merchants off against each other (although never doubt that the merchants are friends and no just how far they can go without offending their friend).
Now and again you come across places where there is no bargaining. These are either stores or services run by ashrams or similar places or operate as a fairly western type store.
The bargaining on smaller items gets silly - chasing R10 or the equivalent of about $0.22. Sometimes it is just the principle that as a Westerner, you won't be gouged.
There are new scams of course. I got hit with one today when I wanted to get pictures copied onto a disk. I was told R100 ($2.20). Then when the copying was underway it became R200. We battled at that blakcmail and settled at R150. I had to go to a different place than I have been using because the owner of the other shop wants me to come to a family wedding this week to photograph the event - no way am I trying to pull that off.
Food is not an area of bargaining. We had chocolate croissants and latte at Le Cafe on the beach by the By of Bengal. Magnificent. At lunch, I again had thali and ate myself silly for R40 ($0.90). I had too much food!
I cannot believe how much of my day is consumed around planning food.

The coffee and croissant possibility exists because the City of Pondicherry was once occupied by the French. There are remnants in Le Quartier Franciase.