"....ek malai wala dena..."

"....ek malai wala dena..."

...said the lady, to the coconut vendor (let's call him Anna) at the beach earlier this morning ["...give me one with good meat..."]

I looked up, while I was sipping on my nariyal paani (coconut water) when I heard it. I was glad to see someone as fond of malai as I am. Usually at the beach I see people asking for a paani wala nariyal (one with no meat). Anna used his special ring (that many coconut vendors usually wear on one of their fingers to knock on the coconuts) to find out which one has malai/meat and sliced up one of the coconuts for her.

The name coconut is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese word coco, meaning 'head' or 'skull' after the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features. Coco and coconut apparently came from 1521 encounters by Portuguese and Spanish explorers with Pacific Islanders, with the coconut shell reminding them of a ghost or witch in Portuguese folklore called coco (also côca). [ Source: Wikipedia ]

I finished sipping on my coconut water and handed over the coconut to Anna for getting the malai out. The primary reason I buy coconuts at the beach is to enjoy the creamy & tender coconut malai. The coconut water is just an additional bonus. Anna handed the coconut back to me after digging the malai up and right then I saw something unusual. The lady who had also ordered a malai laden coconut just threw away the coconut in the bin after sipping all the water and reached out to pay Anna. I kept looking at the sight, a bit confused. 

"Why did she ask for a malai wala nariyal if she did not want to have the malai?" I asked Anna, rather curiously. "Some people buy the malai wala nariyal only because the water is sweeter in those. They don't like  malai" explained Anna, as I was gobbling up the last couple of malai pieces, feeling not so great thinking about malai that I just saw go to waste.

- To a common man, all coconuts look the same but the coconut vendors easily understand the presence ( & thickness ) of meat within a coconut with just a couple of knocks. The same is the case with great people/leaders probably. A couple of knocks (figuratively speaking), and they know which individual is good at what. 

- Two different leaders may prefer the same individual/team player even though both of them may be interested in different aspects/skills that the person brings to the table - yet, both the aspects/skills might be closely knit/interdependent, making the individual a common choice for multiple diverse roles/requirements.