When I headed out on day one of a probable lockdown to buy groceries I was amused to see empty toilet paper and pasta shelves. I was particularly amused because if you eat large quantities of pasta you won't need the toilet paper unless of course, you are Indian and add copious amounts of red chilli flakes to it! (but then we Indians aren't TP dependant - more on this another time). I wasn't particularly interested in the pasta, as most Indian households usually have enough dal-chawal-aata (pulses-rice-wheat) to last two months and so it was easy for me to be amused.
I had seen numerous videos and jokes on it, so I wasn't surprised but it did get me thinking. At first I shook my head at "this selfish behaviour" and compared it to stories from Japan during the tsunami and the malfunction of the nuclear reactor in Fukushima. In particular, I remembered an Indian friend recounting her supermarket experience – how she picked up a dozen bottles of water and then saw people pick up 1 or a maximum of 2 at a time and immediately put 10 bottles back. In her words – "I felt so embarrassed. Felt like a fool."
So what made the Japanese behave differently from the rest? And did all the others behave so differently? I don't have a definite answer to the first question. Maybe because they're such a close knit society courtesy their history. Perhaps they're just a more disciplined community (which they are), or maybe they're just more secure in the knowledge that their government will take care of them, or confident in their own abilities as a population to survive anything.
Then what about "the others"? Do they not trust their governments? Do they not trust their communities? Or could we possibly be seeing it wrong? The optimist in me fought its way to the forefront of my mind as I gave the whole scenario a longer think. Could we be confusing hoarding and stocking? While they are often used synonymously, the dictionary defines hoarding as “to accumulate (money or valued objects) and hide or store away”, and stocking as “to have or keep a supply of/amass supplies of something, typically for a particular occasion or purpose.” A fine line divides the two and therein lies the difference.
Is everyone really hoarding or are they simply stocking? Buying one or two extra? My 17 year old son kept insisting the I "hoard" because it’s a “dog eats dog world” (his word’s exactly!) It’s probably because he just likes the phrase and was very eager to use it but I on the other hand kept telling him and all the others on the family chat group that I "refuse to hoard". I felt so holier than thou while doing! Now, I live opposite one super market and next to another, with at least 4 others within a 200 metre radius. I usually go out and buy toilet paper (ha ha… using it as an example proves that I am now truly Parisien) when I have two rolls left and buy oil when I have about half a bottle left. However, I always have 6 bottles of a mystery Chinese oil (a miracle healer for muscle pain) and 3 bottles of Ayurvedic hair oil, while my husband has enough dental floss for the entire arrondissement. I can be forgiven for the former because you don't get either in Paris and my husband too for… well… I'll think of something!
So what happened to me when I went to buy groceries on Day 1? I bought an extra bottle of oil, a packet of salt (my present one is on 1/2 not 1/4), double the amount of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger (I'm not only Indian, I'm Punjabi Indian!). On one hand I was not going to hoard but on the other hand I instinctively bought more. My son was coming home from boarding school and my husband was going to work from home. From one meal a day and so an average of 5 meals a week (no, not 7, we do eat out!), we would be moving to 2 meals a day and the possibility of 8-10 meals a week (mind you, 1. we weren't at total lockout at this point, 2. son number two arrived later). Did I do all these calculations when I did the grocery shopping? Nope. But like any person who runs a kitchen/home, I didn't have to. I just knew! So I guess its okay for the pasta shelves, the oil, the vegetables and sauces to run out, though, I'm not so sure about the toilet paper.
What's not ok is for me to judge anyone for taking more than one packet of pasta or to shake my head at the empty pasta shelves and think that an entire community is full of selfish people or to assume that everyone lacks a sense of community. How can I judge a 75 year old man, a family of 6, a woman who lives far from a grocery store or a young working couple with the same yardstick? How can I just assume the worst of people at a time when I really need to be kinder and spread kindness?! The stories and videos might be of people in other cities or communities or in circumstances very different from mine.
Grocery shopping continued on day 2, day 5 and on day 8, I am pleased to report that the toilet paper shelf isn't empty. The world is sane again!