Kuala Lampur, Sept. 8 -- Every Sunday afternoon, my wife and I usually make our weekly trip to the supermarket.

The routine is almost always the same. One of us pushes the trolley (me or one of the boys) while the other checks the shopping list. Rice. Eggs. Vegetables. Chicken. Instant coffee if it is running low. Someone inevitably asks whether we really need another bottle of chilli sauce when there is still unopened one sitting in the kitchen cabinet. By the time we reach the cashier, the trolley somehow contains a few things that were never on the original list.

It is such an ordinary part of the week that I never really thought much about it until recently.

Growing up in Pontian, Johor, our grocery shopping (or what Mak called 'be...