The entrepreneurial spirit of mothers By Alzahra Al Dawood
When you think about simpler times, your thoughts usually take you back in time. When my mother was even younger than I am today, she used to support her family in every way possible. The support wasn’t merely in knowing how to cook and clean—skills expected from women of her time—no, she took a step further. By breaking away from the conventional, my mother started her own business to
support her family financially. How, you may wonder. Simply: She started her very own “mini market”, or as they call it: “bastah”. A bastah is when you lay cloth on the ground, cover it with items, and sell to passersby. She initially began selling candies and other snacks. Influenced by the culture and local taste, she upped her game and introduced bajilla (fava beans) and nakhi (chickpeas) to her basta. These legumes were low in cost and affordable, and are labeled nowadays as super foods due to their high value of nutrients. My mother used to wake up early in the morning to start the preparation to cook a kilogram of each legume. The bajilla and nakhi were served in small cups or bowls and covered according to one’s preference with a variety of toppings such as chopped tomatoes, leek, ground cumin, vinegar and hot chili sauce. In my hometown of Sihat, many people can still be found today selling cooked legumes on the side of a road. More often than not, I stop whenever I come across one to purchase a cup of nakhi. Not only because it’s one of my favorite snacks, but because I find myself wondering: what brings this person out here today; or, whom does this person love so much that they are willing to spend hours, often out in the heat, just to make their loved ones’ lives a little bit better.
36 DESTINATION SHARQIYA OCTOBER 2017