I banked a cheque in Grahamstown last week. Not for me. On behalf of an incapacitated friend. But a rare experience and wildly exciting for a “payments” geek.
The errand took me to Nedbank on the scruffy end of High Street. Service outstanding. Pavement needs attention. With time in the bank, I drifted down Bathurst Street destined for Home Affairs. A plastic card decorated with my face lies somewhere in that great hall. The front-of-house chap offered sage advice. Phone and
check status rather then endure the queue.
I ambled back up Bathurst admiring old buildings and thinking – as one does at that hour – of lunch. Not the part of town where this urge usually satisfied. Unless,
of course, one salivates for the finest kudu biltong (Connocks Butchery) or best droewors in the world (Tip Top Butchery).
Yet, on the periphery a little place tugged discreetly at my senses. I’ve passed often. A week back we parked at their door. Didn’t register. Today something looked
or smelt or sounded different. Intriguing, interesting, alluring. I ventured in like a foreigner.
The proprietor – Rashid – seemed to exist in three places at once. Behind counter, in kitchen and at table serving delicious chicken curry with roti, side salad,
and yoghurt. My friend and former Nedbank colleague, Rakesh, would have had our squad in there thrice a week.
An award-winning meal. Salad fresh as morning dressed in a delicate vinaigrette. Wholesome roti and delicious yoghurt. Mmmm. And at R32 best value in town!
On the plush end thirty bucks doesn’t buy a sandwich. Advice for Rashid. Double prices for local tourists. Four-fold to foreigners.
I learn from an overheard conversation between Rashid and an academic-looking couple that he recently took over from his nephew departed back to Pakistan. Try it.
Tell him I sent you. Rashid will satisfy salivations for fine curry.
GRAEME HOLMES
Before moving back to Grahamstown in Oct 2017, Graeme was a bank executive based in the big smoke and craziness of Joburg. He has 20 years’ experience in the Payments Industry. He is a Chartered Accountant, has a Masters in Management by Research (MMR) from Wits Business School, and attended an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) offered by INSEAD (The Business School for the World!) in France.
Graeme is the founder of The Grahamstown Project. It’s simple. He says, “Grahamstown is a microcosm of South Africa. If we can’t get this place to function properly then the whole country is stuffed. Many of the troubles we experience as a country today have their roots here in Grahamstown. it is here where black and white people first engaged in conflict on the African continent. It is here where 9 wars of dispossession over 100 years took place and virtually destroyed the amaXhosa nation. But we are where we are. I don’t have a British passport and the boat-trip back to where my ancestors came from is exorbitantly expensive. Furthermore, this is my home. I am a son of Africa. We must work together to redress the injustices of the past and move as one into a brighter future.”
Graeme is an avid historian, writer, vlogger and public speaker. Like and follow the Facebook page. Join him on a tour. Contact him. He would love that.