Wal-Mart...Asian Style!

I arrived at our temporary dwelling in Bangalore, India in the early morning hours.  I had slept some and rested quite well for the two days that I had spent on the plane.  I was excited about being there and getting reaquainted with my almost two year old grandson and wild horses could not have dragged me to bed! 

Lacey needed to go grocery shopping and I was game - not wanting to miss a thing! We walked down the street and I began experiencing life as I would know it for the next 5 weeks.  I was very time disoriented and I suppose also in somewhat of culture shock.  I remember it as though looking through a frosted glass or maybe a dream.  I could hear Lacey talking and was responding appropriately (I think), but the flood of unfamiliar street noises and snapshots of visually stimulating scenes overtook my senses. 

She stood at the edge of the street, very pregnant and vulnerable, raised her hand slightly and spoke, "Auto".  I stood behind her feeling a little inhibited and watched as she negotiated our transportation in one of the local automatic rickshaws.  When she and the driver had agreed, she quickly moved to get into the back seat and I just followed without question.  I was tired, but I didn't want to miss a thing.  Riding in this golf-cart like vehicle through the roads in unbelievable traffic should have been daunting, but instead it was fascinating.  My eyes could not behold enough.  Who would have ever thought that I could be speechless and in sensory overload? 

Lacey explained to me that we were going to the Wal-Mart store, Easy Day.  Now, during her globe-trotting she has often called stores a "Wal-Mart store", when they were not, indeed, but were a place that many things could be purchased under one roof.  When we got to the store, I was surprised to see the Wal-Mart blue and the gold colored tear-drop shaped icon seen on many Wal-Mart stores in the US. The store carried many US brands and even Great Value.  I'm not sure of their true association, but this was an Asian Wal-Mart. 

We entered on the ground level, with the traditional security personel standing guard by the front door - no nice lady with a bird on her shoulder greeting us (for Batesville resident's pleasure).  This was the produce level.  Lacey knew she had some packaged products to buy and even some everyday department store needs, so we went to the second floor.  We wheeled our basket to the moving escalator/cart carrier and went to the second floor.  Here we found everything from linens and baskets to toys, cleaning products and canned goods.  We spent some time just looking to see what was available.  She chose some shelf products such as boxed cereal and a few canned goods.

It was time to go back to the main floor and purchase produce, look at the frozen foods, and see what meat we might find.  We passed the large barrels of every kind of rice and lentels on the planet as we made our way back to the escalator.  It was tempting just to stop and run my fingers through them - such a tactilly pleasing temptation!! When we got back to the first level we went to the refrigerated/frozen foods.  Here we found yogurt, butter, frozen peas and corn.  Lacey was excited about the cheese - cheddar, mozerella and even cream cheese, a luxury they don't have in their home land.  We bypassed the mutton hotdogs and chicken sausage.  We wheeled around to the very tiny, limited supply meat counter.  There was chicken - a lot of skinny, dried out looking chicken.  There was mutton - not very appealing and poorly butchered mutton.  There was absolutely no beef.  We were done quickly there.

Finally we began looking at the produce.  It was beautiful and very aesthetically attractive.  There were many items that we didn't know what were and didn't know how to buy.  We chose garlic, small red onions, a few potatoes, and green and chili peppers.  We took them to the counter to be weighed and priced (like they do deli meat in the US).  Our basket was full and it was time to check out.

We got into the long line and waited our turn.  At that moment it hit me - we had to get all of this stuff home somehow.  We had to carry it, hail a rickshaw, make a deal and put it in the rickshaw quickly.  It would be a challenge - a very pregnant young white woman and an older American woman with her foot in a boot, carrying a cane, standing beside the road with multiple bags of groceries trying to make a deal with a rickshaw driver!  It was not long until I saw how wrong that scenerio was.  In India, grocery bags are amazingly strong and very nice.  The catch is, you pay for them.  The cashier had misunderstood Lacey and thought we wanted ALL of the groceries in two bags so at the end of check out, we had two very large bags crammed full of groceries!  We had to manage carrying them out by ourselves!  Lacey is resourceful and she took the cart out with us and we stood by the roadside, looking pitiful.

I was so grateful when a rickshaw driver took pity on us and decided to give us a ride on Lacey's conditions.  He helped load the groceries into the back of the rickshaw and took us to our door, where Chase was waiting to help unload.  By this time, I was very tired and ready to rest!  I was also grateful for our Wal-Mart at home and personal transportation that we often take for granted.