#MadrasInMini | 47 | Maligai Kadai Here is another extremely Madras and Tamizh an aspect of my city: the local maligai kadai (grocery store/departmental store). Unlike the western world, we have a higher population of local grocery stores than supermarket/hypermarkets in my city. They’re usually family-owned businesses that cater to the local grocery needs of the people in the neighborhood. Madras (like the rest of India) has a system that follows ‘Maximum Retail Price’ or MRP. This basically means that company packaged products (local and MNC) can only be a fixed amount of money. Across all these stores, those products remain at a fixed price while other ‘loose’, locally-procured items like rice, pulses, fruits and vegetables etc, are priced at the will of the local business. Maligai Kadais become an easy part of your everyday life, as they are ubiquitous with each area/street having about 3 or 4 of them. This allows us to replenish provisions with a small shelf life easily 9about 3-4 days once). These store owners, and employees tend to know you very well, will know details about your life, and your families. It’s not an isolated, alien, shopping experience but that of a local, everyday activity that runs on trust, community-relations and happy conversations. Some of these kadais also allow you to have an ‘account’. This basically means that these shops have a record of what you may buy from them in their log books as and when you buy them. This is later paid off as a complete amount on a weekly/bi-monthly, or a monthly basis. My local maligai kadai annachi always inquires after my sister and myself, to my parents. He addresses me as ‘Chinna papa’/‘Papa’ which translates to ‘the younger baby’ (of the family) or just plainly ‘baby’. I address him as ‘annachi’ which means ‘elder brother’. In my culture, everyone is addressed using basic familial relationships like elder brother/sister, grandpa/grandma, aunty and uncle. That way of addressing one another allows for an internalized sense of simple bonding in the community. This comfortable, natural familiarity is one of the more beautiful aspects of my city. #Madras #MaligaiKadai #localculture