Big Bazaars Vs Friendly Neighbourhood Baniya

I am tempted to pit WalMart, K-Mart, Tescos, Sainsbury and closer towards home: Foodworld, Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar Vs the unorganized community of your good old baniya, bakery guy and the fruit and vegetable guy at every corner. (at least they seem unorganized but i am sure they must have a strong informal network of their own.) Here is what I feel.

First lets talk about these big markets. What are the advantages? Firstly, You get everything in one place. You don't have to go to different shops for your groceries. The baniya might not keep eggs or the bakery guy might not keep a toothpaste. Fair enough. Second, you get consumer protection. The big bazaars are corporates and brand image is very critical to them so they go the extra mile when it comes to gaining a consumers trust and keeping it. Third, you might get stuff at a discounted rate. Things such as wheat, rice etc. Also you might get good offers at these bazaars. ( personally I feel these are just marketing gimmicks that make most of us spend without any reason )Fourth, Since you actually go and look for the products, you are more aware of the variety available to you. You have choice. You can pick between low fat healthy products or the more tasty ones that normal people consume.

The concept of the big bazaar has no doubt come from US or UK. It suits for the people there because it was designed for their lifestyle. They come with their cars on some particular day in the week or the month, buy the groceries for the entire week or a month.(Its really huge) They put all that in their cars and drive off. Also, the markets are huge so it seems the entire town has come to shop there. The market is designed specifically to milk the customer. e.g. There will be things such as snacks, chocolates, candy, soft drinks, milk shakes, magazines books (and things which you don't think much before buying) near the counter. So as you wait for your turn to pay, your mind wanders and you get attracted to those products ( all packaged to attract the customers attention. ) and before you know it you have 3-4 items which you didn't really intend to buy in your cart. Thank you very much the sweet lady at the counter chirps. There is a lot of social-engineering that has gone into strategically placing such products to catch the eye and the heart of the consumer and make him spend as much as possible.

Most of the families in US or UK are not big. The typical family might have an adult male and a female (its possible that they are both male or both female too! :) ) and on an average 2 children (if they are < 16 years of age.) so per person the amount of money they spend is lot more.

India has a huge middle class population. The typical family has a couple, two kids and also the parents. So the amount of money spent per person per month is less. Also it might be the case that the guy is the sole bread winner for the entire family. Not every household has a car. Till now Indians have not been spending too much on luxuries. All this is changing slowly but surely and it is good.

Now lets see what the Baniya has. Before the big bazaars arrived, what did the people do to buy stuff for their day to day life? In a particular post code you might find x baniya shops so wherever you stay chances are that there is one at a walking distance from your home. Similar is the case with the bakery shops and fruit and vegetable stalls.

If you are staying in a certain location for a long time, most probably you know the grocer by the name and he knows more about you than you might think. Its kind of more social and friendly. He knows that you need x kg of rice, y kg of sugar, X brand tea, y litres of oil. So he has a default list which he sends to your doorstep every month by default unless you specify otherwise. You don't have to waste your time or energy. Now that's what I call service.

He doesnt pester you with unnecessary stuff such as unhealthy snacks or crappy magazines which you might toss away after glancing through them for a couple of times. He doesnt make you feel the need of somethings which you dont really need. If you feel like having a chocolate you are always free to ask for it.

If you need to pick up something from the store and for some reason you dont have cash or card on you, no problem, you can pay him later or along with the monthly bill. Free credit :). Everything is based on trust! Also if you need a particular product brought, he might make an extra effort to get it for you. Also like the corporates, the baniyas are also careful about their reputation in the neighbourhood so you do get some sort of consumer protection in a kind of an informal way.

So in the Indian context the latter system is much better is what i think.
Big markets are great for products such as books, electronics, VCDs, DVDs, Furniture or other expensive items for which you spend considerable time comparing between different brands, thinking about various features of a certan item. Whereas our good ol' baniya-bakery outlet-vegetable/fruit stall system is good for the mundane day-to-day stuff.

Whats cooking doc?

I tried my hand at cooking a few days ago. I had succesfully avoided doing that till now. Wherever I went I was fortunate enough to be able to make some arrangement for good, healthy food. Over here in London there are plenty of take away joints but after eating it for some times I realised how much oil I was consuming. Something had to be done. I had come here with no intention of cooking. Right then, One of my friends was returning home to India and she had a cooker which she was going to leave behind. I jumped at the opportunity and within a week, I had all the ingredients and ready to go!

Well, I didnt have everything that I needed for a proper dal fry. I had onions, chilli powder, cooking oil and salt. Whatever I made was pretty much edible. It tasted more like ragda from a chaat joint. It would have tasted great with tangy tamarind juice. But this was fine for the starters.

I bought the rest of the spices today. Damn they are expensive! chilli powder 1.24 pounds, tumeric 1.19 pounds and the portions are tiny! I dont know how long they will last.

I plan to experiment with chana masala and maybe rajma. Then later on to more complex non-veg dishes. Uptill now my cooking skills were limmited to maggi, sandwhich or at the most an omlette.

The Spirit of Enquiry

A few days ago I visited the British museum in London. It is huge! Unfortunately my plans got partly obfuscated because of some engineering work going on the railways. I planned to be in the museum by 2 pm but couldnt get there till 4. I litterally had to whiz through the egyptian section of the museum and the Asian and South Asian section. I felt guilty about it. Well the good part is that it didnt have any entry fee so I shall go again when I am in London.

The museum closes at 5:30 but even those 90 mins left me enthralled. I spent much of the time in Egyptian section. The artefacts have been so well preserved. There have been 30 dynasties starting from 3000 B.C. in Egypt. I mean that in itself is overwhelming. It was like opening doors to a parallel universe or something. If this experience was so awe inspiring then I cant imagine how the British explorers might have felt when they came upon such ancient works when very little of this was known to the entire world. It is one quality I like about the British. They are inquisitive. They are adventurous. They have this spirit of enquiry.

I went on to the Asian and South Asian section. That was equally wonderful. Ofcourse I had seen some of the items on display back home in India but there were many things that I had not seen. Like coins used in the early medieval times. The map showing the ancient world stretching from Patliputra (Patna) through Taxila (Takshashila; now in Pakistan) to Istanbul and beyond into Europe. What a great time it must have been to be alive that time. Full of adventure. If I were alive that time, I would definitely have been ostracized for crossing the Indus. Then people would read about me like Marco Polo, Huen Tsang :)

It was a warehouse of information. All the items were well displayed and well described. On the way out, I came across the Rosetta stone. I had seen it in the school text book. In that i had seen it as a chunk of black stone thats it. Well it is a chunk of black stone alright. But it has a text which is printed in Egyptian heiroglyphics, greek and latin at the same time. Its like a Ancient Egyptian - Greek dictionary.

Overall it was a good experience. Kind of time travel into the past.

close call? or my imagination?

When you are in a new country, you at a subconscious level are always careful about not offending your hosts. You don't want any trouble anyways and you don't want it even more on their turf.

Yesterday evening I went out for a walk. To explore the neighbourhood. It was a nice evening. Must be around 12-14 degree C. Clear sky and a sunny day. I had my Walkman on and listening to linkin park. There was a narrow footpath beside a river ( more of a rivulet ). I decided to take it. It was nice and quiet. It had the river and some trees on on side and more trees and some houses on the other side. The path had gates at regular intervals to prevent bicycles and strangely horses! Well I am new to this country so maybe there are horse riders riding around and i have just not come across any.

I took this path and was walking merrily. Then as I turned around one corner, about 25-30 meters away I saw trouble. There was one more of those gates and hanging around that gate was a group of 3-4 young fellows. It was 6 pm and these guys were drinking beer and having fun. I dont mind people having a good time but the way they were dressed and their language was a bit unnerving. They were dressed in leather jackets, jeans and boots that seemed pretty heavy. I decreased the volume on my walkman and kept walking. 15 meters, 10, 5, one by one they were getting aware of my presence and were stopping to talk just to watch me.

I was struggling not to get intimidated. I had just read news and incident of hate crime a few days ago. I pushed the thought far at the back of my mind. And this looked something like the beginning of that incident. One of the guys was bald except for a line of hair in shape of steep pyramids, running from the top of his temple to the back of his head. Typical punk style. There was a girl with lots of mascarra around her eyes. She was checking me out and the guy looking at her then looking at me. In such situations I try to avoid any confrontation and this guy was sitting on the gate through which I wanted to pass.

My mind was racing as what to do to avoid confrontation. There was a waist high obstacle just to the side of the gate. I decided to jump over it. The guy on the gate was looking at me with a look "even-if-you-ask-me-i-will-not-move". I climbed the obstacle and jumped over it. The guy on the gate was still looking at me. But the look in his eyes had slightly changed from "who the hell are you?" to "hmm thats better". I dont know why i did that jumping over the obstacle. I guess we Indians are used to adjust and over here, I wanted to avoid confrontation so it was double the reason for me to avoid requesting him to let me through the gate. I looked over my shoulder and he still was glaring/staring at me. Him and all of his friends. I instinctively smiled at him and said "Cheers!". I was expecting a smirk or a snort. But to my surprise the response was quite friendly. I was relieved!

Maybe they were not anti-social people anyway and I was getting worried for nothing. Maybe they were and my demeanor didnt provoke them. Maybe they were regular in that area and I was a new comer and hence giving me all that attention. Anyway the point is, not all people are anti-social. Its all in our minds. We keep seeing images of such people in a negative light on the television, in movies etc. I dont know, I might be wrong but I am an optimist.

Right now....

Its Friday afternoon 2nd May 2008. I am somewhere near London. What am I doing? Waiting for a friend in a car beside a mosque. Had I forseen a scene like this in my life?

No...

Life is a road. A road which goes you dont know where. Some people have a GPS. Everything is planned for them. They key in the destination and follow directions. Some people just go straight, some have maps but dont have any map reading abilities and some just stay where they are, waiting for someone to give them a ride.

Me? I take the exit and follow a path which looks unknown! Why? I dont know! There is this "kida" (i.e. itch). I like to be in situations where I can get to see the world as much as possible. Also I dont like to plan too much into the future. 5-6 months is fine. That too is subject to change if something better comes up!

Its a big world and I would like to see it all if possible..... This is one of my aims in life. And all does not mean only US, UK or Europe. I wonder how people in say Ulaan batr, Tashkent, Dushanbe, Kiev and many more places around the globe, lead their lives? Are they friendly? Are they hostile? What do they eat? What do they wear?

Watching them on the TV or reading about them is totally different than actually meeting them, sharing their food, singing their songs! Someday hopefully I shall have covered all these destinations...................... someday...