Different folks, different strokes

In the eternal debate of Nature vs Nurture, there is no clear winner.

It is apparent that both are equally responsible for making you who you are.

My mother came from a generation where natural calamities especially failed monsoons were a regular occurrence. They were used to shortages. Some products were hard to come by. So they learnt to hoard. Good China, clean table linen, shiny cutlery, and certain exotic foods were kept for special occasions and used judiciously. 

Even today my mother buys rice and wheat for the whole year, keeping tabs on the annual harvest. That’s when the prices are lowest and she stores up drums of rice in her garage cum storehouse. The rice matures as it gets older and she takes out her weekly stock and brings it into her kitchen. Similarly, she grinds her wheat every month.

I grew up in a time of relative abundance. Famines were a thing of the past and even though rains failed, the government made sure its populace didn’t starve. But still, being used to having some inventory at home, I kept enough groceries to last me the month. This also helped me to keep tabs on my daily expenses.

But my millennial daughters who like to keep a zero stock inventory only buy what they need for a week. Their kitchens are uncluttered and Instagram-worthy with just the barest of ingredients neatly lining their shelves.

Essential and non-essential goods

But over the last few weeks, everyone’s consumption patterns have changed. Fearing shortages, people began stockpiling.

Being halfway through my monthly stocks, the only stockpiling I did was of medicines. Hubby Dear, ma-in-law and I have medications that are essential for our health. At the best of times, our chemist runs out of one medicine or the other.

But many of our medicines are life-saving and very essential: like blood thinners and Oral Hypoglycemic Agents. These were definitely on my Essential List.

About the rest I didn’t bother. After all, the baniya assured me that everything would be available every day except during the #Jantacurfew.

Everything else was going on as usual till yesterday when suddenly my family members woke up to the fact that they needed certain Essentials.

Hubby Dear ordered two family-sized packs of ice cream, 4 packets of Kit Kat and 4 packets of Whole Wheat Maggi noodles.

The Little Ones needed their essentials: munchies to munch away their boredom.

So I called up the baniya and asked him to send  – one large packet of Soya chips, One large packet of Makanas, 3 Honey Bells and one big bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Feeling indulgent, I also picked up a box of Oreo cookies which turned out to be chocolate dipped ones. The kids were so excited seeing this that they ate them up on the very same day. I, of course, was horrified and asked them from where they got them. They promptly told me that it was I who got them.

Picking things off the shelf without spectacles can be quite hazardous, I realised.

So would you call this hoarding?
And what is your idea of essential?

I hope you stayed home all through the curfew and clapped your gratitude to all those who care for us.

Ciao