Holding the bags - Ethiopian Journey - Blog post - No 48

The entire row of opposite houses had Ethiopian families living in them. Most Ethiopian men and women would only smile and nod their heads. It was very difficult to talk to them as they would not speak English and we could not speak Amharic.

But one of the houses had a bubbly Ethiopian English faculty member from BDU. He could speak very fluent clipped English. He told me that he did his masters in English from a university in United Kingdom. He stopped me one day and said in mock anger, “I have a complaint against your Indian community”. This was a common threat for all NRIs. Any stray incident by a person becomes an incident committed by the entire community.

“Guilty as charged!”, I smilingly answered. He slapped me on my back and roared in laughter “I Like you, I like you. You have accepted your crime so easily”. “But sir” I responded, “What did we do?”.

“The matter is very serious” he said solemnly, “You have rubbed our Ethiopian women on the wrong side”. It was my turn to be solemn now. Rubbing the Ethiopian women on the wrong side? I was clue less!

Seeing my question mark face, The English professor responded “Fine, Fine. I will reveal the crime. It has been observed that Indians go to the market, do all the shopping and it is the men who carry the bags and the women are sauntering behind them, enjoying the scenery. But in Ethiopia it is the women who carry all the load”.

He added with a twinkle in his eyes, “The men folk walk behind grandly, taking in the grandeur and chatting among themselves”. He looked at my astonished face and said in all seriousness, “Now our wives are demanding that we follow the Indian men and start carrying the bags. What a bother!”. He left in a huff and I was left holding the bag for all the Indian community. I felt so sorry for myself!

Ethiopian parenting was strict yet relaxed. Most Ethiopian children would call their parents by name and it was quite a shock to the traditional Indians. Ethiopians have three names. Their own name, their father’s name and the name of the grandfather. Most Ethiopians shorten their names to their own and their father’s like Addis Gedefaw, but in the official register, three names would be mentioned. It was quite a shock to be asked about your grandfather’s name.

There was trouble brewing for me. The administrative department of Bahirdar University made Malleboyina my name, Anil became my father’s name and Ramesh became my grandfather’s name. I patiently explained to them that Malleboyina was my family name and that Anil and Ramesh are my own names.

The administrative guy exploded “what is this family name, and how is that you have two names?”. So in Ethiopia, I became ANIL RAMESH OBAIAH. Strictly I should have become Malleboyina Anil Ramesh Chinna Anjaneyulu Obaiah. Even by Indian standards the name would be very long. The only people who would be delighted with such a long name would be the Ethiopian screen printer’s community.

One thing that struck me was Ethiopians way of dealing with Alcohol. In India it is very common to see people drink. But that is the strange thing! In India people drink to get sozzled. They drink, not only to get a high or a kick, but to do all the antics associated with binge drinking. Drinkers puke, roam on the roads, tease others and generally make a nuisance of themselves. They frankly are a menace to the civilized society.

But in Bahirdar things were very different. Most Bahirdar citizens drank for fun. It was mostly social drinking and beer was quite common and was even available in the Bahirdar University canteen! It was quite common to see both men and women students drink beer in the BDU canteen itself.

Beer was consumed almost like a soft-drink. It was available in a 330 ml bottle and costed a mere 3.50 birr, (Seventeen rupees and fifty paisa)! Quite cheap. Dashen beer was the most common brand consumed.

The only time I saw some sozzled Ethiopians, was immediately after the lent. During the Easter celebrations the hitherto strict Orthodox Christians would loosen their strict diet regime and ate and drank merrily. But drunk, sozzled, wavering and foul speaking drunkards were rare in Bahirdar, Ethiopia!