The Forbidden Fruit

In the beginning...Aha! I can see that glint in your eye! Well, if you think this is another of those oft argued, men over women; women over men discussions, I've got just one thing to say to you, "Grow Up"! The only thing this shares with them are the first three words.

I was just thinking that we Indians have gotten so very good at learning from other people's mistakes, that we take even something as ancient as the 'don't eat the apple' warning pretty seriously. The other day in office [To give you the background, right now am working in Japan. There are 5 Indians including myself in my office, the rest are Japanese] this Japanese guy walks over to our desks and offers each of us a banana. Myriad expressions flashed on faces!, ranging from a suspicious 'am I being taken for a ride' to downright unbelief...looks of incredulity shared..neighbours checked to see if they were offered one too. Am not blaming the others, as a matter of fact I was the first to start grinning like an idiot, trying real hard to keep a straight face when the guy approached my desk!

But this got me wondering, why is it that we were all so taken aback? (Point to be noted, it was by reflex). Was it simply because it was a fruit? I even considered the aspect of it being a banana having anything to do with the surprise, but I feel that an apple/orange/grape wouldn't have altered the reaction much...though come to think of it, a watermelon or jackfruit would have!!

I work for a client with a base in most parts of the world. In all the two years that I've been working whenever people visit us, both clients and fellow Indians coming back home from their onsite assignments, they always bring us chocolates. I believe it is the same everywhere. Y not fruits? Why do we find it so odd? This is the first time in my life I've been offered a fruit in office. If you think about it, fruits are healthier. Why doesn't the thought even cross our minds? The only time when you think of buying fruits for somebody is when they are hospitalized (in some cases the person might have never landed there in the first place, if having fruits was a habit!!). Does the idea seem strange, simply because we don't see ads with people buying fruits as gifts?

I did not get to see how the natives reacted to this. I think it must be common for people here to give fruits, otherwise being the sensitive people that they are the guy would have never come over to offer it to us, if it wasn't a normal thing to do. And I heard from one of the translators the other day that they have exclusive and even branded shops in Japan that sell fruits, to be bought as gifts. I was wondering, why not start the habit? I admit that we will draw strange looks initially. But when people actually start thinking about it, they might realize that it is not that bad an idea after all. So the next time I go visiting, am heading straight for the fruit basket!