Change at the supermarket cash till, is still offered in a mixture of rupees and toffees....occasionally, when I have dashed in quickly to buy something, not having eaten lunch, it's a relief to know that at least I can eat my change !
Three years ago super markets were very basic offering cleaning products, pickles and spices and then there were the bins of basic food stuffs, rice and legumes with someone on standby to measure, weigh and price. But as a sign of the astonishing progress India has made in the years from 2009, the supermarket shelves are a very revealing indicator of what is afoot.
I looked at the shelf which normally carries a few expensive imported food items for foreign clientele such as tinned peaches, olives and tabasco sauce.....now to my astonishment, there were three rows of shelves stocked with such unheard of items like tinned tuna, Nescafe gold top, Pringles Crisps, Schweppes Tonic, Schweppes Bitter Lemon and Nutella ! On TV much advertising has been devoted to this new fandangled western social convention of coffee drinking, with well known Bollywood stars drinking coffee with obvious enjoyment and savouring the aroma of the coffee beans. Chai is being relegated to the lower classes who drink it in little cups on the side of the road from their local chai wallah.
Wandering on to the glass and crockery section, there was further evidence of change - gone are the items of plastic tableware which we had to put up with in the past - replaced by actual breakable china ! Previously, it was practically impossible to find dinner plates in anything but melamine !
The streets are being swept and I see more and more Indian women wearing western clothes. Soon cows will be banished and I haven't seen a camel for months. The last elephant walked past a year ago. India's change from an agrarian economy to an industrial nation is happening with breathtaking speed ! What would Gandhiji have made of this ? Anyway Gujarat is still a 'dry' State - we're all stone cold sober !
Three years ago super markets were very basic offering cleaning products, pickles and spices and then there were the bins of basic food stuffs, rice and legumes with someone on standby to measure, weigh and price. But as a sign of the astonishing progress India has made in the years from 2009, the supermarket shelves are a very revealing indicator of what is afoot.
I looked at the shelf which normally carries a few expensive imported food items for foreign clientele such as tinned peaches, olives and tabasco sauce.....now to my astonishment, there were three rows of shelves stocked with such unheard of items like tinned tuna, Nescafe gold top, Pringles Crisps, Schweppes Tonic, Schweppes Bitter Lemon and Nutella ! On TV much advertising has been devoted to this new fandangled western social convention of coffee drinking, with well known Bollywood stars drinking coffee with obvious enjoyment and savouring the aroma of the coffee beans. Chai is being relegated to the lower classes who drink it in little cups on the side of the road from their local chai wallah.
Wandering on to the glass and crockery section, there was further evidence of change - gone are the items of plastic tableware which we had to put up with in the past - replaced by actual breakable china ! Previously, it was practically impossible to find dinner plates in anything but melamine !
The streets are being swept and I see more and more Indian women wearing western clothes. Soon cows will be banished and I haven't seen a camel for months. The last elephant walked past a year ago. India's change from an agrarian economy to an industrial nation is happening with breathtaking speed ! What would Gandhiji have made of this ? Anyway Gujarat is still a 'dry' State - we're all stone cold sober !
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