Seeing a dead person for the first time other than at a tangi was an eye-opener in my first few days wandering the streets of Delhi.
How could this be when they had a healthy cow ready for the hangi?
At first I gave what few rupee I had to the hand that begged on every corner, but I wised up quickly to the fact I would be soon standing on the same corner next to them.
Looking back now, I can see how those days in New Delhi steeled my resolve toward sharing whatever I would have in life and it etched an attitude of gratitude deep inside that has stayed with me.
Sometimes I see India as the solution to our "instant gratification" generation - wanting everything and doing nothing to get it.
Instead of giving in or giving up and handing them over to a life of institutionalised reform when they lose their way, perhaps we should give them a backpack and a ticket to India so they too can see the real face of poverty a la Slumdog Millionaire.
It would be a huge wake-up call, as it was for me, to see real poverty right in front of you and not being able to turn a blind eye or profess to truly understand impoverished people via the lyrics of a Bob Marley song. Imagine floating this far-out thinking to Paula Benefits, the minster for the unemployed, as a solution for the spike here in Tauranga?
For my two bob's worth, this attitude of gratification is what I believe drives new immigrants from India and other countries to have a go here and succeed.
Their whakapapa comes from a place where kai is a precious commodity and when they get to this bay that has plenty they are into it quicker than you can say "Four Square".
We need to ask ourselves honestly why unemployment in Tauranga has increased when the rest of the country is going in the opposite direction.
Perhaps the answer is we need to look at the work ethic of our own and question why we cannot get them into full-time employment.
Some say, and I agree, that we need to instil this attitude of gratitude from an early age, so a work ethic is seen as a tool to take our tamariki to success.
If there was ever a lesson in financial literacy to be learned for the unemployed and underachieving in our communities, it is from our Indian and ethnic families who know too well how to turn over a dollar by sharing their resources and giving anything a go when it comes to work.
Imagine the principal who picks up this tool and teaches it to our kids? He or she would be a worthy recipient for the big bonus scheme that Captain Keyora proposed last week.
Game four and it's all go in Hamilton tomorrow. This could well be an Indian summer to remember on and off the pitch. Win or lose for all of us here in the bay that has plenty, it's all about an attitude of gratitude for the bounty of gifts we enjoy in absolute freedom here in the silver lining of New Zealand.
The last word belongs to Jatinder Singh from Te Aroha who caught the Corey Anderson six and won a hundred grand right next to us as we watched in Hamilton.
When the interviewer said to him "we don't have to ask you who you were cheering for with a name like Singh", his answer said it all. "Of course the Black Caps - I am a Kiwi, I was born here!"
broblack@xtra.co.nz
