Bananas!

"Niharika, there's a lady with bananas on her head." So the cry goes up every couple of days when our friendly, but expensive, banana lady comes calling, and my amused daughter runs to the door to see her. That basket of hers weighs a ton as well. She's no spring chicken and it took me some effort just to help her lift the thing off her head. Goodness knows how she manages to carry it all day long.

All the same, there are only so many bananas a man can eat and now that she's become a celebrity by having her photo taken, the price seems to have gone up. The other day she was asking 30 rupees for what was probably no more than half a kilo, and I know for a fact that I can buy a kilogram in Ulsoor for 20 rupees.

Nonetheless, with the best interests of the Distressed Banana Sellers' Widows' Guild of Karnataka at heart, (to say nothing of her physiotherpist who must regularly look at her, shake his head and mutter, "worst case of banana-neck I've ever seen...") I bought a hand and then helped her on her way.

Originally publsihed on Blogger on 13th August 2008. Sadly, we've moved into an apartment block - Sriram Stepford - since I wrote this and therefore don't get the chance to buy bananas from Methusala's grandma anymore. Photo from allposters.com.