Out Of Africa

'I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.'
The minute I heard those lines from the movie 'Out Of Africa' starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford I was transfixed!As a rule I am not a fan of the woods,neither Holly nor Bolly, but after moving to Kenya I was determined to watch this 1985 winner of seven Academy Awards and I finally did!I resolved then and there to visit the location in Nairobi where the story took place(and the film was shot) and I got my chance this week!The children have their spring break(well,we are nearing the end of a warm Nairobi summer but it is spring in the United States Of America hence 'spring break' for the kids!),my husband was in South Africa and so I bundled the kids into the car and we were on our way to the Karen Blixen museum!
It is a long drive in peak hour Nairobi traffic and I had plenty of time to mull over the lady in question.She was a Dane who,after a failed love affair,entered into a marriage of convenience with Baron Von Blixen and together they came to Kenya to start a dairy farm in 1914.But her husband bought a coffee farm instead and so it was that Karen found herself the possessor of six thousand acres of farmland!Karen was very sick with syphilis soon after coming to Nairobi,thanks to her philandering husband,whom she divorced a few years later.In those pre antibiotic days,the disease ensured that Karen,though cured,could never carry a pregnancy to full term and remained childless all her life.Instead she devoted her remaining years in Africa to educating the children of her farm workers.Her husband moved out,with the result that the burden of running the farm fell on her slender shoulders.
We reached the affluent,residential Nairobi suburb where Karen's beautiful Kolonial bungalow,with it's airy verandah and sloping,tiled roof,is located and that has now been converted into a museum.A cheerful guide escorted us into the old world stone structure and began recounting Karen's story.Unfortunately for Baroness Blixen the soil of her farm was acidic and not conducive to growing coffee.But she was determined to make it a success and struggled on alone taking huge loans from a bank to tide her over.I told the children how hard she must have worked to keep the farm going but my unsentimental daughter was quick to point out that it was the Africans who actually did the back breaking labour!(Not to be left behind,the Indians were simultaneously slogging to lay out railway tracks across East Africa!The Kolonialists certainly knew how to make us work!!)I pointed out to my daughter that Karen alone bore the responsibility of making timely payments to the bank,no small feat for a woman during the early years of the last century.In fact when she published her books later,she initially did so under a pseudonym,as female authors were not well accepted even in Europe!
The guide showed us all the lovely wooden furniture,some of it original,some donated by the crew after the movie was filmed.Karen was a skilled artist as well and some of her originals paintings line the walls of her house.Palm trees that she herself planted survive to this day and their tall fronds embrace the Kenyan skies like Karen did Kenya and her people.It was in this house,too,that she was visited by her paramour Denys Finch Hatton,an Englishman and a big game hunter.He was a pioneer in game hunting and game viewing and Finch Hatton Safaris are the ultimate in luxury in Kenya even today!The guide showed us two lamps that Karen used to signal to Finch Hatton whether her mood was good enough to receive him or not!The green lamp placed in the parlour window and seen from a distance gave him the go ahead to visit her but the red lamp warned him to stay away!Wow,I wish we could use this system in Pune to keep away people who are in the habit of dropping in unannounced despite having more than one phone at their disposal!
The farm began to show some returns but then a major fire broke out and destroyed everything Karen had worked for.She was forced to sell her house,her furniture(most of it was later bought back for the museum) and land to repay the bank loans.Finch Hatton had been killed in a plane crash while flying his Gypsy Moth plane and there was nothing to keep her in Kenya any longer....She returned to Denmark and began a new career writing about her life in Africa.Her books became best sellers,she became famous and the rest,as they say,is history!When the guide explained this,my son turned to me and said,'You write about Africa as well.'I said'Yes I do and I hope I am becoming famous too!'
Her dream was to build a college for her workers but it was not fulfilled in her lifetime.So the Danish government stepped in,provided the  funds and the College Of Nutrition now stands right next to her house!Her government also bought the house and gifted it to the Kenyan Government.Thus we can enjoy the Karen Blixen Museum today and stand in her garden and gaze at the smoky blue Ngong Hills which she loved!The word Ngong means knuckles in Kiswahili and that is exactly how those hills look!Denys Finch Hatton's grave lies at the base of these very hills and lions often came to bask on it....
These are Karen's last lines in the movie and I quote,'If I know a song of Africa,of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back,of the plows in the field and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers,does Africa know a song of me?Will the air over the plain quiver with a colour that I have had on or the children invent a game in which my name is,or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me,or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?'Unquote.
I would like to assure Karen Blixen's soul,wherever it may be,that though I do not know if African children have invented a game,there is a beautiful suburb in Nairobi of her name-Karen!There we have the Karen Plaza Shopping Center,the Karen Coffee Gardens Restaurant,the Karen school,the Karen Museum,the list goes on and on...Yes,Karen,Africa remembers you and how!Though you never came back here after you left, you never really went Out Of Africa either!!

                                                Karen's House-now the museum.

                                                 The Ngong Hills

A Doctor We Call 'Mami'

A new country means exposure to a host of new viruses.So one of the first things that I did as soon as we relocated to Nairobi was to scout out the best paediatrician for the children.After asking friends who are long time Nairobi residents and cross checking from others,I had a name.Even though both the children usually have a hundred percent school attendance in India,I knew that sooner or later they would come down with a bug here and I was prepared!Well,the day dawned sooner than later and a shivery cold morning found us at the clinic as both the kids had the sniffles,fever and throat and body ache.
We introduced ourselves to the doctor and as he began examining my daughter,he casually mentioned that he had moved from India to Nairobi almost forty years ago and had had the good fortune of being the paediatrician for the children and grandchildren of Kenya's Presidents and Prime Ministers for three generations!When he found out which school the children were from,he added for good measure that all his VIP patients are from that school.My daughter immediately began fancying herself as a 'VIP' though she has not done anything remotely important in life yet!
His words took me back to my own childhood and into our very own paediatrician's clinic on one of Pune's busiest roads,right in the heart of the city.All my childhood memories of being ill are enmeshed with those quaint,wood paneled walls,the wooden seats,the ancient refrigerator and the immunization chart on the wall.Being Army brats,we did not live in Pune during our early years but each vacation was spent with our grandparents there.And I seemed to have developed a penchant for having either one contagious disease or a broken bone every summer!One year it was a cracked collar bone,closely followed by chicken pox,then it was jaundice,another year it was measles,the next year I had mumps,then severe tonsillitis,then a broken toe,an appendectomy and I finally finished off with German measles at seventeen!Maybe I subconsciously knew where I would get the best care!Unlike today,when a new born baby's vaccinations start even before it has properly opened it's eyes after birth,we had a very limited number of vaccines and our bodies became immune the hard way!
The word 'Mami',both in my mother tongue Marathi and in India's national language Hindi,means your mother's brother's wife.In our case,our beloved child specialist was not our own 'Mami' but my mother's maternal uncle's wife!And my grandmother(from the royal family of Aundh,near Satara) was not her only sister in law!She had five more but both she and my mother's uncle,a top vascular surgeon,(who also happens to be the younger brother of Nairobi's first Indian High Commissioner)went out of their way for all of us.Most of us can barely manage one sister in law or two(and I am sure the feeling is mutual!) so hat's off to her!And all this while raising her own family of two young children.The relation was once removed but the warmth and the excellent medical care we got was not!Right from the day I was born,my mother made it a point to consult her about all kid care matters.And our doctor's technique is such that her advice is always in the form of gentle suggestions,something we can all learn from,as people giving unasked for advice are rampant in India!She is never 'a know it all',despite having studied medicine in London and is the daughter of a very high ranking former Reserve Bank official.Her late mother was an extremely soft spoken and talented lady.'Mami' has traversed the world but has maintained such strong bonds with the entire extended family that her care is not limited just to prescribing drugs but often extends to a home cooked meal followed by gallons of ice cream!And a bag of garden fresh mangoes to take home during the season!And my mother's uncle,being as skilled a photographer as he is a surgeon,clicks enough pictures of all of us to launch our own portfolios!
When my children were born I demanded that Mami come and examine them,though they had been pronounced hale and hearty by the hospital's resident paediatrician!And on her way home from her own clinic she honoured my request,nay 'demand',and each time both of them dropped by to see the baby despite their busy schedules.Only when she declared that all was well,did I breathe a sigh of relief!Such are the levels of trust that a good doctor and an amazing human being inspires!
When we were in Dar Es Salaam,my mother called us with the sad news that her uncle and aunt were closing down the clinic where we had been so lovingly tended to and henceforth would only operate from home.After all,they were getting on in years too.My son who was three then and my daughter who was eight,were up in arms as soon as they heard the news and stoutly declared that they would not 'change' their paediatrician in Pune!I assured them that I,myself, would drive them across town so they could be examined (or injected!) by Mami at her own house!And that is exactly what I still do!Never has a paisa changed hands  nor can we ever repay all they have done for us!
Our Nairobi doctor's prognosis brought my thoughts back into the room and as I smiled and thanked and paid him I realized that though my sister and I and all our cousins were not the children of hot shot politicians nor were we very important people but that is exactly how we were treated,pun intended,by our,sorry my mother's, 'Mami' who had become our own!

Wild Encounters At.....The Maasai Mara

You know you are in Maasai Land when you see the cattle grazing peacefully across the vast plains!They are accompanied by the Maasai tribesmen clad in bright red 'shukas'or sheets.It is said the colour red keeps the lions away!In fact,in the earlier days,killing a lion was a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood for Maasai men!Today,of course,both the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have banned this practice.
A group of twenty of us set off for Mara,bright and early from Nairobi,and a four hour drive saw us at the gates of the Maasai Mara game reserve.We were headed for the Sarova Mara tented camp which is right in the heart of the reserve.A sumptuous buffet lunch of twenty different main dishes awaited us, not the least of which were Mattar Paneer and Mixed Daal(lentils) with hot,buttery Naan!There was also an array of soups,salads and fruits.The desserts comprised of cakes,puddings,ice cream and mousse.I thought it was sinful even to look at these but that did not stop me from tucking into them!There is many a slip between what a person thinks and actually does!And believe you me ,it was the same for every single meal!Never was a dish repeated in the three days that we were there and nor did we have to relish the same desserts!I had never thought a day would dawn when I would savour perfectly spiced methi-aalu(fenugreek and potatoes), bhendi chi bhaaji(lady finger),'upama' and 'bhajias'(fritters) in the middle of the African grassland!(Our earlier wild life sojourns in Tanzania had yielded only continental food!)Times change and how!
We lingered over lunch till it was time to leave for our game drive-the first of four.The animals which have now become'common' for us were spotted immediately!The gazelles,the impalas,the haartbeestes(they have antlers shaped like hearts!),the topis,zebras with adorable babies,giraffes,lots of elephants,a protective mummy with her fortnight old calf among them,wild buffalo,wart hogs and hyenas.Fifteen minutes into the drive and we crossed our fingers!We have been a bit disappointed in a couple of game reserves in Tanzania where lions were concerned!(Friends from Dar will remember searching for lions in vain all day at Ruaha and on another day peering from the train into every bush in Seleous!)But this was to be our lucky weekend!
We came upon a pair of magnificent males sleeping back to back near a bush.And they were to be the first of more than thirty lions and lionesses that we saw in a span of thirty six hours!Sometimes they were ambling near our vehicles,sniffing at the tyres,staring at the many cameras that were clicking.At other times they were ignoring us royally and grooming themselves just like your pet cat at home would!If they moved into the grass and lay down,it became the perfect camouflage for them.A pride of twenty was sun bathing in the mild morning sun right in the middle of the road,like the cows in Pune are so fond of doing!
And then on our second evening we came across six lions devouring a Maasai cow they had just killed!It was a gruesome sight as the cow had been completely disemboweled and the lions were tearing into the flesh with little roars of contentment.Our guide told us they know they are not supposed to kill cattle and so are feeling guilty about it!This was proved two minutes later when another tourist's camera made an extra loud click and two lionesses ran a few meters away from the kill!Earlier,when they had been innocently lying around,the cameras had not affected them at all!Understandably,the Maasais were upset about their cow and we heard that the bush officials had to intervene to cool tempers.
A few hopeful hyenas and jackals hovered around the site,awaiting their turn once the kings of the Savanna had had their fill.Bald headed vultures patiently sat on a tree to scavenge the last remains of the ill fated cow.
We were also fortunate to have seen three cheetahs,an animal  that has become extinct in India.We spotted a leopard(pun intended!),a rhino strolled by marking his territory,countless hippos splashed around in the river,a large family of banded otters gambolled nearby.The crocodiles refused to show themselves!

As we drove back to our camp on our last evening,heavy rain-clouds covered a part of the sky,turning it into a deep blue-gray colour.On the western side,we could see the golden orb of the setting sun- it's last brilliant rays turning the yellow Savanna grass into spun gold!As the first fat rain drops began falling,the fragrance of wet earth wafted over the plains and a beautiful rainbow appeared across the sky.It was nature at it's best and most vivid!Never have I felt more like a blip on the horizon,as we all are,as I did then!Only Mother Nature has the power to make us feel insignificant when we least expect it and it will do us good to remember it,now and always....

About Books And.....More Books!

Before we actually relocated to Nairobi last August,I had been here with the kids last May as well to have a dekko at the schools and to do a recce of the system of education here.My dear friend from Dar Es Salaam, who had relocated here earlier,took me around to a different school everyday and we managed to cover the top eight schools this way!
We finally discovered that the American school was one of two which offered the ten plus two system of education(the same system is currently being followed in India) as opposed to the British curriculum schools in Nairobi that follow the eleven plus two system.We had to zero in on one of them to avoid an extra academic year for the children in the long run.
So a crisp,cold,cloudy Nairobi morning found us shepherding the two children to face the ogre of an entrance exam for the coming academic year.My daughter was specially disgruntled as she had just finished a gruelling school year,topped by the dreaded 'final' exam which signifies the end of an academic year in the Indian system and was in no mood to appear for yet another one!We handed over our lambs to the teacher who was going to administer the test and were asked to go and wait in the Middle and High school Library.
Both my husband and I were deep in our own thoughts.The thought uppermost in my mind was whether we were taking the right decision by shifting home and hearth to an alien land just when our daughter was entering her teens.Africa was not new to us but earlier she had studied in the Indian School in Tanzania and the transition to and fro had been very smooth.Now she was growing up and would be uprooted and transplanted into a third culture,the American one,albeit in Kenya.It was enough to send shivers up my spine!
Then we entered the library and book lover plus book worm that I am,I automatically began scanning the shelves.To my unabashed delight,all my favourite American and Canadian authors,whose books I had grown up with,were on those shelves!Of course our daughter,a voracious reader, loved them too!From Louisa M Alcott's Little Women  to Susan Coolidge's Katy series,from Jean Webster to Laura Ingalls Wilder,from Beverly Cleary's Ramona to L.M Montogomery's Anne Of Green Gables,from Ann Martin's Baby Sitters to Nancy Drew,every possible book I had painstakingly collected over the years(with help in raiding book shops from my mother and sister) was lined up on those shelves!I later discovered my son's favourites(the Berenstain Bears top his list!) in the Elementary Library.Suddenly my spirits lifted.Our children would not look like most of their counterparts(Indians can never be natural blondes!),they would not speak in the same way(at least to begin with),they would not eat the same kind of food(we are hard core vegetarians),but they had read the same books!They had such a solid link to connect them to this system that I was immediately reassured that they would feel at home from day one.This was surely a more tangible link than Mcdonald's and Pizza Hut,Reebok and Nike!This was the one legacy we had given them that would not change or diminish!
And so it was with deep regret that I read the news that one of Pune's oldest book stores,Manney's,would be downing shutters this month.It is from this very book store that my first memories of choosing a book for myself when I was scarcely higher than my mother's knee stem,here that I spent my school academics prize vouchers every year,only here that I found so many out of print authors-both British and American.I hunted for the newest edition of Dr.Spock here(my mother's dog eared copy was more than two decades out of date!)before my daughter was born and here that I led first my daughter and then my son to pick their own books and to initiate them into the delights of buying and savouring a book!
My husband has been repeatedly asking me if he should buy me a Kindle.I am steadfast in my refusal.The school library is currently more than fulfilling all my book needs.Can you snuggle up in bed with a Kindle?Can you breathe in the incomparable aroma of a newly minted book with it?Will you have memories of when and where you bought a particular book with it?And what about the joy that comes from spotting a long searched for book in a used book store?There are certain delights that only a book can offer!

The Taste Of India

This week has been about food!I mean it always is about food for Indians but as it happens we have been eating out a lot this week!One day it was because no one wanted to go home for dinner after watching the latest Bollywood Blockbuster at the nearest multiplex,another day it was because we had been invited for a 'puja' followed by dinner,Valentine's day came this week as well and on another day we just could not resist dropping in into our favourite Indian restaurant in Nairobi, after shopping for our atta(wheat flour), masalas (spices) and sundries.It is as if we squeezed in a couple of months of eating out in one short week!Is it any wonder that we (my husband and I,the children are too active to be affected by extra calories!) can barely squeeze into our respective jeans?!
When I first landed in Africa a decade ago I was thrilled to see a plethora of Indian restaurants offering the entire gamut of cuisine from all the different regions of India.I was even happier to see every single ingredient we need to cook our food at all the small grocery shops as well as in all the supermarkets.'At least our palates,attuned as they are to the flavours of our land, would not suffer here' was the first thought that had jumped into my mind then!
Suffered I certainly had!More than a decade and a half ago when we first moved to Russia where my husband was working,Moscow had only a couple of Indian restaurants!And St.Petersburg had just one!Every time we were in these two cities,we queued up there for lunch and dinner.Sadly they did not open for breakfast!Before flying back to our base near the Black Sea,we would stock up on whatever groceries were available in the tiny Indian store which was based in the Indian students hostel building.This was the solitary place in Moscow which could fulfill at least some of our needs.And we could lay our hands on papads,pickles,Haldiram namkeens and mundane stuff like lentils and rice only if we were really lucky.In those days everything used to be imported from the United Kingdom and if the ships were stuck at the port at that particular time,we were doomed and had to go back home empty handed!
As a vegetarian and a finicky one at that (I do not eat eggs and mushrooms and just about manage paneer) the  food,though of the highest standard,that I had to eat as I toured other cities in Russia with my husband, was too bland for me and often reduced me to tears.The first thing I used to do after reaching home was to dig into my bottle of red stuffed chilly pickle which I used to bring from India and guard closely.Yes,my Russian maid  had also become a pickle addict!By the time we left Russia,her daughters refused to eat vegetables unless they had been spiced!I am afraid I have spoiled them for life by supplying her with spices from my own limited stock!
So imagine my delight and immense relief when I found that first Tanzania and then Kenya offered us everything from spicy samosas to crisp bhajias,from succulent paneer tikka to crunchy pani puri,great garlic naan to tender tandoori roti no matter where we travelled or which city we visited!Every single mall here has an Indian restaurant with exhaustive menus.If I choose to make it at home,everything under the sun is at hand for me,be it Churmuras(puffed rice) for Bhel,Puris for Shev Batata Dahi Puri,Jowar flour for Bhakris,Dhokla flour or Idli flour.Or we can pick up the phone and any dish of our choosing will be delivered home in ten minutes!Yes,even Makki ki Roti and Sarso ka saag,Masala Dosa and Dahi Wada!What utter bliss!
If Indian food is so widely available can our desserts be far behind?Kool Kulfis in numerous flavours,Faludas,melt in the mouth Rasmalai,soft Gulabjamuns, to name but a few!And you can round off your meal by a paan (betelnut leaf) of your choice-Mitha,Benarasi,Gulkand!You will be spoiled for choice.
When I accompanied my son's class on their picnic,I had taken Aalu tikki (potato cakes) for his teacher.I explained to her that I had toned down the spices so she could eat it easily.She was quick to reply that she loved spicy Indian food,often ate Indian cuisine back home in the States and named one of Nairobi's top Indian restaurants as her favourite which she visits frequently.Talk about reverse Kolonization!

An Optical Illusion?

Wild horses cannot drag me out of our 'awesome'(it's the top word used in the children's school!) abode and I am specially reluctant to leave the house on Sundays.But a few months ago we had heard about a remarkable phenomenon that occurs in a place which is around an hour's drive from Nairobi.Friends from our Dar Es Salaam days had told us about it and since then we had been agog to view it ourselves.So when they invited us to join them last Sunday, we were more than ready.
We had heard that there is a spot on a hill called Kituluni Hill a few kilometers from the market town of Machakos,which was a Kolonial administrative center and is a few years older than Nairobi.It is also called 'Magic Hill' and this particular stretch of a few meters is said to defy the rules of gravity!We were finally getting a chance to test it ourselves and become eye witnesses to what is termed as a miraculous sight!
We set off from Nairobi by mid morning and this time we were going in the direction opposite to the one we had taken to go to the Great Rift Valley.As we left the outskirts of Nairobi, gradually, the landscape began changing.The hilly contours of the city that is our current home gave way to flat,arid land.All we could see were small,stunted Acacia tress and,sometimes,scraggly Eucalyptus trees that still managed to look stately!Even the maize in the fields we passed had turned yellow in the hot summer sun.
We are now so accustomed to seeing green everywhere,dappled with bright splashes of Nairobi's beautiful flowers,that I began feeling strange even before we had reached the 'strange' spot!And there were no giraffes or zebras grazing casually by the roadside as there had been on our last trip out of Nairobi!Puffy white Cumulus  clouds stretched across the sky.A few grey clouds hovered over the horizon but it did not seem as if it would rain that day!
As we entered Machakos town,we could see green,terraced hills once again and soon enough we started going up a gentle incline.The car climbed steadily up for some time and then around half way up the hill we were at our destination.We parked by the side and were surrounded by the local people who were eager to demonstrate the weird phenomenon.They took a plastic bottle,filled it with water and gave it a push to make it roll down hill.Instead,before our very eyes,the bottle began rolling uphill!We had to blink twice to reassure ourselves that we were not seeing things!My son,being the typical analytical Aquarian that he is,insisted that the strong breeze was pushing the bottle in the wrong direction!So one of the men opened the bottle and poured the water out on the slope.As per all known laws,it should have flowed down the incline.It began snaking it's way upwards!My son was dumbfounded!I had finally found something that shut him up!!
Then they asked us to get into our car and put it into neutral gear and release the brake.Logically we should have begun rolling backwards,something that makes me panic even today after a bad experience we had on the old Mumbai Pune road when I was a child.Today,however,I had nothing to fear as our car began climbing up the slope in neutral!Wow!
There are many legends surrounding this place,one of which says that a woman who had two husbands lived here and the husband who lived uphill had a stronger attraction towards her and so pulls things towards him!Polyandry seems to have funny repercussions here!Another story says there are certain minerals buried deep in the hill which are exerting this pull.There is a similar spot in Ladakh in North India which is manned by the Indian Army and has been termed Magnetic Hill.The same phenomenon has been observed here though magnetic compasses show nothing unusual.
 Scientists in other parts of the world insist that this is an optical illusion and what we see as a road going uphill actually has a downward direction.Only the surrounding topography gives us the illusion that the road is curving up.I only know that what I saw with my own eyes defies what I have studied and I would not have missed it for the world!

A Kadogo Economy

A few days ago my husband was listening to the local Kenyan news on television.I was reading, as is usual for me, when I heard the words 'kadogo economy'.(Yes,it's a 'K' word again!)It immediately caught my attention as these days all one hears is how the economy is slowing down if not crashing all together and how even once bustling economies will be showing a degrowth in the coming year.So I was curious about this new kind of economy and I tuned in to the program.
I knew that the word 'dogo' means small in Kiswahili.The Kenyan person doing the documentary explained that a kadogo economy is one in which the focus is on business generated in the small shops and kiosks.The huge,glittering malls do not enter the picture at all.It throws light on the buying habits of the people who literally survive on two if not on one meal a day.These small kiosks,here in Kenya,stock the most basic items which are essential for day to day living.The examples he gave were the ubiquitous 'ugali' or maize flour, which is the staple food here,beans,rice,oil,margarine,sugar,tea,soap and the like.
He said that these people buy the food in very small quantities as they do not have the wherewith all to buy huge amounts at a time.An example would be a prosperous person buying groceries from a food store in a swanky mall stocks up on ten kilos of rice at a time.He gets a good deal.But those few shillings saved do not really matter to him!It is just a matter of convenience and comfort!The person buying at a tiny store also buys ten kilos over a period of time but a cost analysis shows that he ends up paying more for the same ten kilos!And does not even get to save the few shillings which might have helped with the last meal before pay day.So it is a not a win win situation for him!This,in a nut shell,is a kadogo economy.The only advantage is that usually the owner of the store knows him as a neighbour or fellow church goer and might extend some credit in a really tight situation!
This set me thinking.These small shops are like our small 'kirana'(grocery)stores in India.We all shopped here before the Food Bazaars,Spencers,Mores,etc opened up.In fact,even today many of the last minute needs are met by our friendly neighbourhood grocer.Just the other day I called up our grocer in Pune from Nairobi and asked him to deliver cake and Srikhand(a dessert made of curds,saffron and sugar) to my parents house for their anniversary as a surprise for them.He did it without a second thought!He knew I would make arrangements to pay him as,of course,I did not want my parents to foot the bill!
Now these are the people who are running the kadogo economy in India.We have actually seen a daily wage construction labourer in Pune buying one stick from a matchbox!One sole stick!The entire match box was beyond his reach that day.I have seen many kids from households below the poverty line running to the corner shop to buy a handful of rice for that day's dinner!They are least concerned about any economy whether kadogo or not,surviving from meal to meal is what matters.Contrast this with a young teenage Indian girl who turned up her nose at the regular rice my mother had served and sweetly informed her that she ate only Basmati(which is a long grained,fragrant, flavourful and expensive variety of rice!)
So what can we do?I have started by making sure my kids serve themselves as much food as they need,then finish what is on their plates,learn to be grateful and appreciative of the food and share what they have with the people around them,be it a piece of chocolate for the maid in the house or a slice of pizza for the driver in the car.
Economies around the world may be shrinking and becoming 'kadogo' but at least we can start making our hearts bigger!Let us learn to empathize so we can do more than just sympathize!