All she wants is a packet of green tea  

When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from Hong Kong.

It was a holiday ritual in the days when India had not opened up its markets to the world (almost a decade and a half after China) I carried suitcase loads of Head and Shoulders shampoos, Ray-Ban dark glasses, Levi's jeans and gold chains. Thankfully, all these are available freely there now, so all they want is the latest Canon digital cameras.

Still, her answer surprised me: green tea.

Now, this was a woman who, as long as I can remember, roasted coffee beans and ground them fresh. She didn't even drink Indian tea.

I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both avid newspaper readers, had convinced themselves that green tea was the panacea for all illnesses thanks to Sunday supplements that were full of the virtues of the beverage.