{"id":1073,"date":"2019-05-19T02:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T02:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nyandarua.com\/home\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2020-05-16T19:39:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T19:39:47","slug":"bhachu-only-indian-in-olkalou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyandarua.com\/home\/bhachu-only-indian-in-olkalou\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhachu – Only Indian in OlKalou"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bhachu was the only Indian (Muhiindi) in OlKalou. Like Mukurino, we did not know when Bhachu came to OlKalou or where he came from. All we knew was that he owned the biggest hardware store in town. Bhachu ran the store assisted by his two daughters. There were a few local workers whose job was mainly to load and unload heavy supplies onto pickups and trucks. Heavy items like iron sheets, bags of cement and gas cylinders. They also climbed ladders to reach for merchandise that was on the top shelves that Bhachu and his daughters could not reach. They also pumped Kerosene for customers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bhachu modernized OlKalou a lot. Kerosene was widely used for lighting hurricane lamps (tawa wa rutambi or tawa wa ngirathi) that were used in every home back then, since there was no electricity outside of OlKalou town. Working families like teachers, nurses, market traders and others, who lived in rented rooms in town also used kerosene for cooking on their kerosene stoves.\u00a0 Families bought Kerosene in the amounts they could afford. Some bought in 300ml soda bottles while others bought in 5 liter jerricans. There were shops that sold Kerosene, you could smell it from a distance.\u00a0 They stored kerosene in steel containers (marebe) and dispensed it using an improvised (jua kali) metal pump that was not only slow, it also made a sharp whizzing sound with every pump, ginyi ginyi ginyi. Some sounds never leave your brain. That is one of them and I can still hear it in my head. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bhachu introduced an automatic pump for Kerosene. It was like a petrol station pump only that it was right outside the veranda of his shop. There were two huge clear glass bottles built at the top of the pump. They stayed full of Kerosene and when the attendant started pumping for a customer, you could see the Kerosene churning inside as it reduced in amount. When the attendant stopped pumping and replaced the nozzle, the clear “bottles” filled up again ready for the next customer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When this was first introduced, both children and adults stopped and stared in wonder. This was a modernized, faster and cleaner way of dispensing Kerosene, thanks to Bhachu.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sometime in the 1980s, Bhachu and his family left OlKalou and we never saw or heard about them again.\u00a0 There was no farewell party for Bhachu.\u00a0 We shopped at his store one day and the next time we visited it was closed, which was rather unusual for a shop that remained open 7 days a week throughout our childhood.\u00a0 We did not put much thought into it at the time, we naturally thought he had an important matter to attend to and would be open the next time we visited.\u00a0 It never happened.\u00a0 Weeks turned into months and it finally dawned on us Bhachu was gone for good, without saying goodbye, without a “going out of business” notice or a forwarding address.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 Everybody wondered what happened to Bhachu.\u00a0 It was hard to get information on Bhachu because we did not know him and his family while they lived and did business in Olkalou, other than being his customers at his shop, an interaction that was strictly business.\u00a0 Bhachu and his family kept to themselves with zero socialization with the locals, I guess because of the cultural differences which everybody acknowledged and respected.\u00a0 They lived behind their shop and none of us had ever seen Bhachu or his daughters anywhere else outside of their shop.\u00a0 There was a door behind the counter that opened to the back of their shop, which was their home.\u00a0 Bhachu and his family closed their shop’s front doors from inside and retreated to their “home” at the back.\u00a0 That is why locals had zero chance of interacting with the Bhachu’s, but we still considered them part of the OlKalou family. \u00a0 But now, with Bhachu gone, we did not have anybody to inquire from about his whereabouts.\u00a0 And there has not been another Indian in Olkalou since Bhachu.\u00a0 I still miss Bhachu.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like Mukurino, Bhachu offered a valuable service to the young farmers of OlKalou.\u00a0 His shop carried a variety of merchandise that farmers needed for the development of their newly acquired farms.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Although his shop was generally categorized as Hardware store, it was more of a General Store or a supermarket where you could find almost anything.\u00a0 He sold construction materials, fencing materials, farming tools, household tools, animal feed and anything in between.\u00a0 There were galvanized iron sheets (mabati), nails of every kind, cement, paint, barbed wire, wheelbarrows, milk cans and buckets, hoes, forks, axes, machetes, garden shears, pruning shears, gunny bags, charcoal jikos, kerosene stoves, hurricane lamps, animal feed like dairy meal, chicken feed, McLick salts, kerosene, kitchenware like sufurias, steel wok (karai ka ngima) and much much more.\u00a0 Bhachu’s hardware is where we first saw a propane gas cylinder.\u00a0 His shop was so well stocked, if you did not find an item at Bhachu’s, chances were you could not find it in any other shop in OlKalou, you may have to travel 35 kilometers to Nyahururu to find it.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When you look around Olkalou today, every fence and every house constructed in the 1960s and 70s, the materials used must have come from Bhachu’s hardware.\u00a0 And for that, our only Indian in OlKalou, we are eternally grateful. Asante sana Bhachu.\u00a0 Namaste.<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Does anybody have information on Bhachu and his family?\u00a0 I sure would like to know, maybe even hear from his family if they are reading this.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bhachu was the only Indian (Muhiindi) in OlKalou. Like Mukurino, we did not know when Bhachu came to OlKalou or where he came from. All we knew was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1326,1468,1542,1188,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-1073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nyandarua","7":"tag-bhachu","8":"tag-indian","9":"tag-irebe","10":"tag-kerosene","11":"tag-mukurino","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nBhachu - Only Indian in OlKalou - Nyandarua, home to Aberdare Ranges.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Your perfect outdoor adventure awaits in Nyandarua. 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