Teen life: Grandpa's death brings memories of wisdom and fun



It is a common enough belief that we are all products of our pasts and our circumstances. The death of my grandfather last week has made me see how some of my interests today were shaped by my experiences pottering around with him, whether it be questioning everything, a love for adventure or seeing the beauty in simplicity.

His charitable medical clinic was a fascinating place for a child, a haven of strange bottles and mysterious powders. There were rows and rows of colourful pills with exotic names like "Ibuprofen" and "Norflox", which to my five-year-old ears sounded like words stolen from the musical language of an enchanted land far, far away. Best of all, though, was the tiny clear jar hidden right on the top shelf of a peeling wooden cabinet, labelled "GLUCOSE".

It was intended for malnourished patients, but if we - my cousins and I - were good enough, we'd be invited to stand by that peeling cabinet, in a neat queue, with our mouths wide open, and grandpa would spoon in a minuscule dollop of glucose. It was the best thing I'd ever tasted. You see, if you put the ordinary kind of crystallised sugar on your tongue, it sits there, hard and unyielding, until you suck it. Grandpa's kind was a fine white dust that immediately dissolved in your mouth, and a delicious, tingling, ice-cold sweetness spread across your taste buds. Perhaps this was because all your senses seem heightened in childhood memories; I'm too scared to eat any now, just in case it doesn't live up to the loveliness I remember.

Grandpa succumbed to a haemorrhage that had kept him imprisoned in a coma for the past few months. The grandfather I remember, though, was brimming with life and ideas. It was the holidays, and I was clambering over the oddly shaped block of wood in the garden, which had been roughly hewn into a flailing figure with wings. "That," he said seriously, "is Icarus."

"Who?" I picked at a scab on my knee. And Grandpa told me the story of the man who built himself some wings out of wax and feathers and tried to fly. He was doing fine until he got too close to the sun, at which point the wax in his wings melted and Icarus hurtled towards the earth and landed in our garden, resembling nothing now but a mass of burnt twigs. Having recently caught Mum smuggling in presents that the tooth fairy was meant to magic under the pillow, I was a sceptical kid. "It looks more like a bird than a man," I said.

To prove his point, Grandpa fished out his Pears Cyclopaedia, and there was Icarus, with a bit describing how he flew too close to the sun.

There was also a bit that said that this was Greek mythology, but then I didn't know what mythology meant. And if grandpa had been right about him flying too close to the sun, of course he was right about Icarus landing in our garden. The PearsCyclopaedia was supreme in his house; its word was law, so Icarus it was.

Grandpa liked his crosswords, too. Well, that's an understatement. He and Grandma subscribed to two copies of five different newspapers, so they could compete with each other, and every morning, before breakfast, several crosswords would be completed at a feverish pace. The cryptic ones, that is. It was mesmerising to watch.

He also had a way of turning little things into fantastic, wildly exciting discoveries. The big red flower seemed much more wonderful when described by its botanical name, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, and used to explain binary nomenclature. I went into transports of delight when presented with a bowl filled with "Aqua pura-ice juice", and sipped the water as eagerly as if it had been the finest cordial. The plastic radio I had once picked up in a mall as part of Dubai Summer Surprises and had broken was extraordinarily fun to listen to after grandpa fixed it up.

There might not be any more building "igloos" with blankets, and his LP player, which tinkled out Mozart melodies as well as 1960s Hindi music, is long gone. But the funny-shaped block of wood in the garden will always be Icarus to me, and the powdered glucose will never lose its splendour.

Lavanya Malhotra is a 16-year-old student in Dubai

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It's up to you to go green

Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.

“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”

When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.

He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.

“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.

One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.  

The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.

Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.

But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”

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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

CHELSEA'S NEXT FIVE GAMES

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