You Go, Girl!

My years in the United States have been thrilling for a mixed bag of reasons, except one - the lack of mobility. My time in Lafayette was spent as the typical graduate student: living on-campus, spending most of my time in the university, eating junk or free food, walking everywhere and hitching a ride with a friend when mall-visits seemed the only cure for bouts of graduate life-related depression. On rare occasions, the city buses came in handy. On all such bus or car rides, I missed my Kinetic Honda. I have never been a car person, even more so in India because it meant driving a manual-transmission car. Call it my lack of coordination skills but I'd prefer walking to a destination (no matter how far) instead of managing the accelerator, brakes and clutch, along with changing gears and keeping an eye on the road in front of and behind me in the Great-Indian-Traffic, all at the same time. I loved the wind (and the soot from all the gas-guzzlers!) in my hair and enjoyed smirking at the car-drivers while weaseling my way out during a traffic jam on a scooter.

But, it is not just about me. In India, two-wheelers or scooters have changed lives, especially women's. As a developing country, the fact remains that not every Indian household can afford buying cars for both husband and wife (even though it is a rising trend in young urban Indian couples). In the Indian patriarchal society, men remain the privileged ones and almost always retain the right to drive the only car in the family. Scooters are cheap to buy and maintain, and yield higher mileage. More households can afford two or three two-wheelers than two cars. The choices of scooters available, some of them targeted especially at women, do not hurt either. Hence, girls and women alike, happily wear helmets or tie scarves around their faces, beating dust and grime, and dependence.

The current situation of public transportation in India helps the case of two-wheelers. Largely dysfunctional and mismanaged, modes of public transport such as buses, three-wheelers or taxi-vans are usually unsafe for women and take ages to get from point A to point B. Hence, from the very ugly, yet very sensible Bajaj scooter to the current favorites Honda Activa and Scooty Pep, scooters are everywhere in India. With easy personal loans and financing, they're easier to buy and pay off. Women in sarees, salwar-suits, skirts, pair of jeans or pants scoot past you every second. With fashionable handbags, jazzy shopping bags or modest-looking grocery bags, these women make a statement: a statement about leaving their dependent pasts behind, moving forward, literally and metaphorically, and taking charge of their own lives. The scooter, so invisible in its commonness, has let Indian women taste freedom, and work and play according to their own free will. This is a privilege not many female counterparts in other nations have been able to enjoy even in this century.

Cars will be next. They are already becoming the new scooter. Whereas the latter represented freedom, cars represent the prosperity of the educated new-age Indian woman. Young and hip urban women in high-paying jobs are more and more inclined towards buying cars, a natural progression. Yet, I believe the future belongs to scooters. Green, fuel efficient, compact and convenient, they suit the needs of a growing Indian and world population just fine. During the rising-fuel prices fiasco in 2008, Americans focused their attention on the small but the very effective two-wheelers. Even though the American roads and motor-driving system were (and still are) centered more around the needs of car-drivers than scooter-riders, the number of trucks and vans lessened, and more Honda and Piaggio scooters were seen on the road. The trend has yet to catch on but there is now an unprecedented awareness about this neglected mode of transportation.

As for me, I'm still a hundred percent, diehard scooter fan. On my wishlist: a capri-blue Vespa LX 150. Give me a Vespa over a Lamborghini any given day. Any given day!

P.S.- The photo has been downloaded from http://arajan.org/lambretta.JPG. It is not being used for commercial purposes and I will take it down if required. It is a Lambretta, an old Indian favorite.

Indulgence of a privileged few?

Some days ago, I came across an article on the CNN Web site. It talked about how a food blogger challenged herself and others to eating "real food" for a month. Real food in this case was defined as any edible item that is not processed such as refined oils, flours, some milk products, salt, sugar, etc. Even the so-called organic food, if in a can or a box, was asked to be thrown away. Food was supposed to be made from scratch. Lard, yogurt, cheese, flour and other staple food items were prepared in kitchen to be used while cooking.

The idea behind the challenge was noble but it made sense only if you had the money to spare. Organic and the traditional, fresh foods (that was used in this case) cost more than just normal, off-the-shelf grocery-store food. I am a fan of eating healthy organic or traditional, fresh food but I can't. It is not within my reach. I have to be honest to keep the balance. My household runs on a comfortable but meager graduate student salary, just enough to save a little and spend a little more. Buying organic food every single grocery trip is still a luxury I am not willing to afford.

I have often wondered, though, why is organic food or traditional, fresh food so out-of-reach for budget households, apart from the usual "high investment cost" excuse? I came across some reasons on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Web site (http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq5/it/). The following pointers have been quoted from the Web site.

• "Organic food supply is limited as compared to demand;
• Production costs for organic foods are typically higher because of greater labour inputs per unit of output and because greater diversity of enterprises means economies of scale cannot be achieved;
• Post-harvest handling of relatively small quantities of organic foods results in higher costs because of the mandatory segregation of organic and conventional produce, especially for processing and transportation;
• Marketing and the distribution chain for organic products is relatively inefficient and costs are higher because of relatively small volumes."

The website mentions that with the increase in demand, the above mentioned costs are bound to go down, resulting in a decrease in the cost of organic food and, I am assuming, other organic products as well.

So, that means that I will have to wait my turn to be able to enjoy organic food without risking my little, but precious savings. May be I'll indulge myself every now and then until my husband and I can get out of grad school and get real jobs. May be then, I will be a part of the "organic" everything movement. Until then, I will have to support the green movement by foregoing poly-bags in favor of my very own cotton grocery bags, saving power and water, not buying stuff I do not need and remaining a vegetarian (It is a tough life-choice in the United States!).

P.S.- I am no supporter of throwing away any amount of food to make way for "real food." Millions go hungry everyday, and our sense of entitlement and wasting even a grain does not help. I just hope the people who took the challenge donated some of the food they weren't using, to charities. I am from India and have seen poverty from up close. Every single contribution, whether in money or food, matters.

Also, the article in question: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/23/real.food.challenge/index.html?iref=allsearch

The image used above was taken from the http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Vegetables_g63-Vegetables_Background_p13336.html website and has been clicked by m_bartosch. It is not being used for commercial purposes and I will take it down if required. Please let me know.