Tuesday, October 12, 2010: Brown and Happy Chocolate Shop

As I became more familiar with our immediate surroundings my comfort level at embarking on excursions that led farther from the comfort zone of the Lemon Tree hotel grew, or so I thought. By the second day I had joined up with a group of fellow students to explore the retail outlets located in the area. The shops I discovered represented an interesting mix of Western and Indian styles. I noticed that there were several key difference between India and Westernized retail outlets. Stores that sold Indian apparel were frequently understated and somewhat difficult to find: they occupied smaller, less visible locations that the more ostentatious Western clothing stores, each of which could fill a large lot. I found that stores which sold Indian attire also lacked the trappings of wealth (such as guards, valet parking, frigid air conditioning and vastly inflated prices) offered by the retail stores that sold Western goods.

This sense of difference was underscored by our choice of rest stop. While walking along a strip of Westernized boutiques and jewellery stores we noticed a small chocolate shop and decided to stop for a break. The differences between this establishment, called Brown and Happy, and other Indian coffee shops I visited during my time in India were immediately apparent. Brown and Happy featured frigidly cold air conditioning, a beautiful interior design of dark hardwoods, as well as a menu and signage that were written exclusively in English. While my immediate reaction upon entering this peaceful, Westernized zone of exclusion from the chaotic surroundings of Ahmedabad was one of relaxation and serenity, my later reflections on this experience were more unsettling.

First, my trip to Brown and Happy made me question my role as a student who was interested in exploring the local culture. Rather than immersing myself in all the Ahmedabad had to offer, here I was instead sitting inside a zone that was clearly reserved only for the most wealthy and privileged of Ahmedabad’s inhabitants. The decision to stop here, in a familiar place in a decidedly unfamiliar city, forced me to question both my comfort level with experiencing the unfamiliar, as well as the manner in which my role as a white, privileged traveller affected my social status (and my experiences) within India. Ultimately, the marked dichotomy of physical comfort and intellectual discomfort that arose as a result of this experience has forced me to be more cognizant of how the choices that I make here both impact the types of experiences that I have, as well as the manner in which those choices reflect on me.