‘They carry dreams’: Brown boxes of love, sent from the Gulf to India
Al Jazeera
Kerala migrant workers send cherished gifts – Tiger Balm, Axe Oil, Imperial bar soap – and connect with their families.
Thiruvananthapuram, India - As soon as you enter, walk to the right, then a little forward.
In the first or second aisle, you’ll see them immediately, prominently placed on the shelves: Tiger Balm and, next to it, Axe Oil — both from Singapore. And then, in the third or fourth aisle, Imperial Leather bath soap from Britain.
In Lulu Hypermarkets across the Gulf, these coveted products – muscle-relieving ointment and a bath bar with a well-known fragrance – are always positioned the same so shoppers can easily find them. Often, these three products are the only items people have travelled to the store to buy.
Indian-born businessman and billionaire MA Yusuff Ali is the chairman and managing director of LuLu Group International, which oversees 255 Lulus in 23 countries. The franchise has the tagline “The world comes to shop in Lulu,” but most consumers at his swanky Gulf stores are fellow South Asians – mainly low-paid migrant workers from his home state, Kerala, on India’s southern tip.
Of the nine million Indians living in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, people from Kerala form the biggest chunk — by far.
