Author: Damodar Mall (appropriate surname)
Foreword: Mukesh Ambani
Preface: Kishore Biyani
Some excerpts:
Misri of maakhan misri was once a cool, new thing that came from Egypt (aka Misr in Hindi).
“If you leave a space measuring more than your forearm – from the tip of your finger to your elbow – between you and the person just ahead of you in a queue, in India, such a gap is not feasible to sustain. It shall get bridged or occupied within five minutes.”
This is one of the interesting results from a study done on Mall’s request across India from temples, colleges and train stations to malls, multiplexes and wedding parties. But Mall’s interpretation of these results is even more fun.
He says Indians value what he calls the ‘elbow push factor’ in different ways from the Western shopper. Luxury stores, built with plenty of room so no one needs to jostle (based on the understanding of the Western shopper), are looked upon suspiciously by the Indian shopper as forlorn and empty, not as peaceful and serene. “People actually felt reassured by a certain polite level of elbow push, a certain amount of crowding as long as it does not degenerate into disorder and chaos.”
- We are wildly suspicious of actual ready-to-eat foods. Indian households are instead filling their fridge with what Mall calls work-in-progress foods – batters, pastes, mixes, packets of vegetables cut for Chinese stir-fry or sambhar.
According to Mall’s research, the Indian middle-class household would rather get a cook (full-time or part-time) or even outsource special festival cooking to what he calls a “neighbourhood aunty” – informal catering operations run by women. As long as the illusion of making something from scratch and the illusion of customization exists, the Indian grocery shopper is willing to try anything from pesarattu batter to maple syrup.