Book Review: Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast
With the new coffeemaker at home, I am trying to learn the fine art of making different kinds of coffee, There is a lot of runway left in that learning. Wanted to pick up some of the theory and history behind coffee. (You might remember my three year journey into gins). I think it was Stephen Leitner who had pointed me to this book “Uncommon Grounds”.
Fascinating book. If not anything else, it showed how little I knew about coffee. Some of the highlights of the learnings include:
1. Coffee originated from the ancient land of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). We are not sure when though.
2. Roasting of beans is relatively new – sometime in the fifteenth century
3. Like gin in England, alcohol in general in the USA, coffee all over the world has a rich history of becoming popular only to be blamed for a lot of social ills and then getting banned. Which was usually followed by periods of surreptitious drinking and smuggling.
4. Growing up in India, I was aware of the coffee plantations in the south. What I was not aware of was that coffee made it to India with a Muslim pilgrim taping seven seeds to his stomach and smuggling them to south India during a “prohibition” period in the middle east.
5. Europeans were the ones to start adding milk to coffee while the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern folks still drink their coffee straight. It is theorized that this is because Europeans can tolerate milk while the folks in the Middle East and Mediterranean areas tend to be lactose intolerant.
6. The folks to adopt coffee last – the Scandinavians – ironically are the ones with highest per capita coffee consumption today.
Much of the book is dedicated to detailing how colonialism and slavery were intertwined and abetted by the coffee producing countries. Other than putting forward how unfairly the slaves and locals were treated by the colonials for profit, it also details some interesting history of the Cold War where USA and the CIA got deeply involved in the local politics of Latin American countries thru coffee economics (to stave off the fear of communism taking over).
Above all, when it comes to America, this book is an ultimate treatise on how consumer marketing evolved in the USA. Fascinating history of false claims, brilliant packaging, provocative ads, adoption of the practice of TV sponsorship, all the way to congressional hearings to peddle more of the black aromatic beans!
Another interesting fact: The total value of coffee traded today is larger than the GDP of over half the countries in the UN!!
While this has done nothing to improve my cappuccino foaming skills, I strangely feel smug while drinking a cup of coffee.
Enjoyable read!
Catching up on some evening reading
“O Nodi Re”
This was written by and also sung by Hemanta Mukherjee. I think he also composed the tunes.
O Nodire
Ekti kotha shudhai shudhu tomaare
Bolo kothay tomar desh
Tomar neiki cholaar shesh
Tomar kono badhon naai
Tumi ghor chara ki taai
Ei achho bhataay abar
Ei to dekhi jowaar e
Ekul bhenge okul tumi goro
Jaar ekul okul du kul gelo
Taar laagi ki koro
Amay bhabcho michei por
Tomar naai ki oboshor
Shukh dukkher kotha kichu
Koile na hoy amaare
Roughly translated:
(improvements welcome)
Oh! you incessantly flowing river
I have but this one query for you
From where are you coming
And is there no end to your flowing?
You seem to be blissfully unfettered
Bereft of your own abode
One moment I see you receding in an ebb
And in the next you are rushing in a tide
You break a bank on one side
Only to create another on the other
And what do you do for those
Who have lost on all their sides?
Do not think of me as a stranger
For whom you have no time nor tide
Why don’t you pause next to me
And narrate the story of your life?
Saturday lazy morning
I wish you enough!
Keeping up with my tradition of starting the year by “wishing you enough”. A message worth repeating every year. As a person who arguably spends more time in airports than home and as somebody who spends time in hospices with folks who regularly say their “forever goodbyes”, the story and the moral of the story rings very true to me.
Even if you have read it last year, it is a great read again. Also acknowledging Larry Mason who had originally wished me enough…
“I wish you enough!”
By Bob Perks
———————–
I never really thought that I’d spend as much time in airports as I do. I don’t know why. I always wanted to be famous and that would mean lots of travel. But I’m not famous, yet I do see more than my share of airports.
I love them and I hate them. I love them because of the people I get to watch. But they are also the same reason why I hate airports. It all comes down to “hello” and “goodbye.”I must have mentioned this a few times while writing my stories for you.
I have great difficulties with saying goodbye. Even as I write this I am experiencing that pounding sensation in my heart. If I am watching such a scene in a movie I am affected so much that I need to sit up and take a few deep breaths. So when faced with a challenge in my life I have been known to go to our local airport and watch people say goodbye. I figure nothing that is happening to me at the time could be as bad as having to say goodbye.
Watching people cling to each other, crying, and holding each other in that last embrace makes me appreciate what I have even more. Seeing them finally pull apart, extending their arms until the tips of their fingers are the last to let go, is an image that stays forefront in my mind throughout the day.
On one of my recent business trips, when I arrived at the counter to check in, the woman said, “How are you today?” I replied, “I am missing my wife already and I haven’t even said goodbye.”
She then looked at my ticket and began to ask, “How long will you…Oh, my God. You will only be gone three days!” We all laughed. My problem was I still had to say goodbye.
But I learn from goodbye moments, too.
Recently I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her departure and standing near the security gate, they hugged and he said, “I love you. I wish you enough.” She in turn said, “Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.”
They kissed and she left. He walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?”
“Yes, I have,” I replied. Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were limited, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me.
So I knew what this man was experiencing.
“Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever goodbye?” I asked.
“I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, the next trip back would be for my funeral,” he said.
“When you were saying goodbye I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more.” When we said ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them,” he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”
He then began to sob and walked away.
—
My friends, for 2024, I wish you enough!
Two big changes in the new year
Over the last 25 years, I have fine tuned my own crazy system to set and track goals. Some legitimately worry that I spend more time setting and tracking my goals than actually doing them!!
This year, one of the goals is to try minimalism on digital stuff. For me personally, it seems to create too much distractions and eats up my time. The experiment of minimalism on physical goods has yielded good results for me in terms of freeing up time and certainly having far less worries. Admittedly, my wife and friends have upped their worries on my sartorial sense, though!
The challenge is my OCD-level detailed system is all digital. Finally, after talking to Roger, decided to go his way and am headed the analog way for 2024. Of course, me being me, I had to convert all my digital templates (there are about a dozen of them) into paper and pen versions first.
In an another first, I have set all my 2024 goals before the year has begun! Usually it is middle of January when I get done.
Now, for some unscheduled afternoon nap!!!